Human-Machine Interaction: The Influence of Rewarding Mobile Vibrotactile Stimuli on Consumer Choice
William Heyward Hampton, Christian Hildebrand · Alexandria (UniSG) (University of St.Gallen) · 2020
Given that both mobile usage and e-commerce have outpaced that of personal computers, mobile device use now constitutes the primary form of human-machine interaction among contemporary consumers. These mobile-engaged consumers receive a nearly-continuous stream of vibrotactile notifications stemming from a diverse array of events, many of which are subjectively rewarding, such as messages from friends and family or social media “likes”. Beyond the vibrations associated with these common mobile events, large e-commerce platforms such as Amazon have begun leverage haptics by pairing subtle vibrotactile mobile feedback with certain consumer behaviors such as shopping cart adds, raising questions as to how and why such vibrations affect consumer choice. The current research integrates and builds upon existing haptic processing and reward research to examine three fundamental research questions relating to mobile vibrations: (1) how they are subjectively perceived, (2) whether they influence consumer choice, and (3) by what mechanism they exert such influence. We find that certain vibrations are perceived as rewarding, contingent upon prior exposure, and can boost purchasing in ecological online shopping environments. We further show that these effects are amplified for impulsive consumers and provide evidence that associative learning drives mobile vibration reward perception