Impact of Direct Interaction with Virtual Objects through Touchscreens on Enhancing Psychological Ownership and Endowment Effect

Abstract

As e-shopping continues to grow, with a significant nudge from the pandemic, more research is needed to find out how we can deal with reluctance caused by people’s inability to touch online bought products. Previous studies found that psychological ownership is an important predictor of individuals’ attitudes, while the endowment effect, in particular, impacts the finalization of economic transactions. In this article, we explore the impact of direct interaction with virtual objects through touchscreens on enhancing psychological ownership and endowment effect. Moreover, we explore if the product type influences the degree of psychological ownership manifested by consumers and if the individual differences in terms of need for touch moderate the relationship between the interface and psychological ownership, respectively endowment effect. We also analyzed if virtually touching the products through a tactile interface impacts psychological ownership and endowment effect compared to the situation when the products are analyzed on a mouse interface. Results highlight that studying products on a touchscreen will not lead to an increased psychological ownership and enhanced endowment effect compared to studying them on a no-touch interface. However, participants who studied the material products on touchscreen reported a higher psychological ownership. Touchscreens lead to an enhanced perceived touch, which will trigger a higher level of psychological ownership. Comparing the impact of touch on two touchscreen devices, results showed that tablets will determine an increased psychological ownership compared to smartphones.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the three reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Romanian New Leu (RON) is the currency of Romania.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mihaela Ştir

Mihaela Știr received her PhD in Marketing from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, in 2020. She is an associate lecturer of Marketing, Direct Marketing and Public Relations at Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. Her research interests include virtual touch, e-commerce, consumer psychology and online marketing.

Adriana Zaiţ

Adriana Zaiţ is full professor of Business Research Methods, Marketing, Public Relations, and Intercultural Management, Head of the Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania. Her research interests include research reliability and validity, interdisciplinarity, intercultural influences, consumer psychology, and research evaluation.