Need for Touch Scale

What it measures

Measures individual differences in the tendency to gather product information through touch. Autotelic NFT captures haptic exploration for its own intrinsic pleasure — touching products is enjoyable regardless of purchase intent. Instrumental NFT captures touching as a means to gather diagnostic product information before making a quality or purchase judgment — touching to evaluate texture, firmness, weight, or temperature. NFT is a critical moderator of channel preference: high-NFT consumers are less satisfied with e-commerce and more likely to visit physical stores to touch before buying. NFT also predicts responses to tactile packaging, product sampling, and virtual try-on technologies.

Representative items

• When walking through stores, I can't help touching all kinds of products. (Autotelic)
• Touching products can be fun. (Autotelic)
• I like to touch products even if I have no intention of buying them. (Autotelic)
• I feel more comfortable purchasing a product after physically examining it. (Instrumental)
• When I can't touch a product before buying it, I feel uncomfortable. (Instrumental)

Citation

Peck, J., & Childers, T.L. (2003). To have and to hold: The influence of haptic information on product judgments. Journal of Marketing, 67(2), 35–48.