Tactile contact and evaluation of the toucher.
The authors investigated the effect of touch on a person's evaluation of the toucher in a field setting. In the context of selling a 2nd-hand car, the authors instructed a male seller to slightly touch (or not touch) a man who was interested in the car. After the participant left the seller, a female confederate solicited him, asking him to evaluate the car seller on various dimensions. The results showed that for each dimension that the participants evaluated, the touch condition was associated with statistically higher positive evaluations of the toucher than the no-touch control condition.
Erceau
Damien
D
LSHS, Université de Bretagne-Sud, Lorient, France.
Guéguen
Nicolas
N
D006801:Humans; D012938:Social Perception; D014110:Touch