Touch vs. click: how computer interfaces polarize consumers’ evaluations

Increasingly powerful computer technologies have enabled the development and widespread growth of touchscreen devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones in consumers’ daily lives, including online shopping. Nonetheless, it is not clear to what extent and how direct-touch (i.e., finger) vs. indirect-touch (e.g., mouse click or stylus) interfaces have differential effects on consumers’ evaluations toward the object on the screen. Results from a lab experiment and a field study indicate that a direct-touch (vs. indirect-touch) interface has a polarizing effect on consumer evaluations. For an object about which consumers have a prior positive attitude, a direct-touch interface enhances consumer evaluations; for an object about which consumers have a prior negative attitude, a direct-touch interface lowers consumer evaluations. We find that consumers’ visual information processing style can moderate the polarizing effect. In addition, the polarizing effect can be explained by consumers’ vividness perception. These findings make useful contributions to the literature on haptic effects and human-computer interactions, as well as have significant managerial implications.