Food Contagion Caused by Source''s Body Size:Influences of Perceiver''s Need for Touch and Type of Food

• Main Authors: Shih-chieh Hsu, 許詩婕
• Other Authors: Chun-Tuan Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/64567337440936943725

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 企業管理學系研究所 === 101 === In retail environments, people don’t like to buy a product which is touched by someone else. However consumers enjoy touching products to receive product information or to just have fun, Based on the observation of these conflicts, this research attempts to examine how contagion source and consumer individual differences influence product evaluation in different retailing environments. The present study uses experimental design to investigate the food evaluation of contagion source’s body size (slim vs. medium vs. no contagion source), need for touch (high vs. low) and type of food (vice vs. virtue) Thus, a 3x2x2 factorial design is conducted. This study manipulates six different scenarios to observe the attitudes toward the food and the purchase intentions. Besides, this study also compares the situations with contagion: contagion source’s body size (slim vs. medium), need for touch (high vs. low) and type of food (vice vs. virtue) to examine the interaction effects. The results indicate that the negative contagion effect is lower after the person with a slim size touched the food than a person with a medium size touched it. Individuals with high need for touch are more likely to accept that food was touched by others than the counterparts with low need for touch. Respondents who are in high need for touch produce positive contagion effect after a slim person touched virtue food. Based on these findings, this study suggests that food retailers should recruit slim salespersons in retailing environments. The findings also provide some insights regarding how to reduce the negative contagion effects.