Liu, Wu, and Awan probed how touching products influences attitudes about them. They found that “Consumers rely on physical touch in offline shopping and vicarious touch (i.e., imagining touch) in online shopping to develop their attitudes toward a product. . . . This study conducted a meta-analysis. . . . In general, relative to not touching, touching had a positive effect on consumers' attitudes toward a product . . . and the effect size was moderate. Furthermore, the positive touch effect was mediated by consumers' cognitive experiences relating to the product and their affective experiences relating to the product. The cognitive path . . . being stronger than the affective path.”
Wumei Liu, Feng Wu, and Tahir Awan. “Does Product Touch Affect Consumer Attitude Toward a Product? Meta-Analysis of Effect Sizes, Moderators, and Mediators.” Psychology and Marketing, in press, https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21766