Haptics and its effect on consumers' intentions using neuroscientific methods: Literature review

Abstract

The haptic properties of a product have mostly been underestimated with most studies focusing on visual aspects of objects. Nonetheless, in the last years, it has been found that tactile stimuli are in some cases even more important than the visual ones. However, the traditional paper-based surveys cannot fully and objectively examine their effects on consumers. Therefore, neuroscientific methods, which overcome these obstacles, are becoming more used but there is still only a small number of studies focusing on the effect of haptics in marketing. Using the keywords haptics, tactile input, EEG, fMRI and tactile, seven relevant studies have been found and used in this literature review, out of which four have used EEG and three fMRI. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to review the research that has been already conducted and to identify the areas in which further research should be made and the neuroscientific methods which could be used.