- This event has ended.
The School of Management cordially invites to attend its Research Seminar with associate professor Atefeh Yazdanparast. Professor Yazdanparast will present her research on how the correspondence between color value and haptic softness affects consumer responses.
Date: Wednesday, December 2
Time: 12:45 to 1:45 pm EST
Type of Event: Via Zoom.
Meeting ID: 915 5708 2174
Passcode: 728204
Title: Light Is Soft and Dark Is Not: How the Correspondence Between Color Value and Haptic Softness Affects Consumer Responses
Abstract: While research has examined the role of situational cues to compensate for touch in situations in which touch is hampered or prevented (i.e., online shopping or haptic blocking in brick-and-mortar environments), the role of cross-modal correspondences between color value and haptics in informing tactile perceptions about products has not been explored. Across eight studies, we document the effect of the association between color value and softness on purchase intention and willingness to pay, finding that lighter (vs. darker) color values lead to more positive consumer responses through the mechanism of color-softness congruency and anticipated softness, but only when softness is a desirable product attribute. Moreover, prior haptic priming and the availability of haptically relevant descriptions for products diminish the effect of color value-softness correspondence on consumer responses. Finally, when haptically irrelevant descriptions are provided, purchase intentions are affected through imagery processing resulting from the color value-softness association, highlighting the heightened reliance consumers place on visual information when haptic information is insufficient. The findings offer multiple implications for sensory marketing in both theory and practice.