Ideas from Literature
Not only do I find examples of behavioral economics in literature (see this recent post), sometimes I get research ideas from it. This passage from Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose was one such instance:
Touch. It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy, gentility with its codes and conventions and restraints. By touch we are betrayed and betray others… an accidental brushing of shoulders or touching of hands… hands laid on shoulders in a gesture of comfort that lies like a thief, that takes, not gives, that wants, not offers, that awakes, not pacifies. When one flesh is waiting, there is electricity in the merest contact.
We already know that touch can change our behavior, for instance, holding something for a few seconds makes us much more likely to buy it. But what about how touch, as slight as described here, changes interpersonal dynamics? How exactly might I test this idea? What might an experiment look like? And could I possibly get approval for it from the Institutional Review Board? More on this soon, I hope…
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves
I think people have looked at this (in psych). How, with a slight touch the waiter end up getting more tips. So, there is work out there. (No refs right now as I am doing a drive-by post).
This is an idea that is ripe with potential. From recreating your cheating experiments, to testing changes in creativity, to experimenting with price negotiation, to experimenting with changes in patience and attraction, I bet the results will have profound implications in personal relations. As Bruce Springsteen wrote: “I’m just looking for someone to talk to, and a little of that human touch.”
Maybe it is the reason why we shake hands?
Touch me not plants certainly can’t tolerate being violated(touched)
! However, the Indian Naturalistic Philosophers/researchers(Yogis) perhaps used “not touching” or doing the folded hand salute called “namaste” in order to preserve ones’ state of mind. If one is calmer after meditating then stay so by staying away from temptation via touch. So y not enable people to be calm and then use touch. Skin resistivity or some similar biophysical response is measurable in polygraphs. So how likely is someone holding a pet to take pet-food? kind of objective vs. people who heard slow relaxing music (like classical piano) who get the choice to touch the CD of the song being played or meet the person playing the piece like pianist etc. going to buy the CD or the musicians service?
Here in the first case haptic joy of touching pet vs. in second case auditory joy of being relaxed via live calm music can perhaps help learn something new?
This needs more thought, too many variables jumbled up. I can’t cite any documents on why Indians use Distant folded hand salute it is my guess.
I know, at least internally, the car companies have done work on this premise. A friend of mine who sold cars told of how they were coached in training to try to get comfortable enough with a customer where they could touch them on the shoulder or clap them on the back. You might film a car lot over time, and record the sales rates of interactions where the salesperson is able to touch the customer, and as compared the sales rate in those interactions where no touching occurs pre-sale.
You can test in an bussiness environment. A touch can change one’s perception from one another. For example, How our judgement change by a hand touch? Many people get free stuff due to a touch. Or how a hand shake determines who gets the job????
It would be interesting to see how touch affects mood. For instance, whether being brushed up against by a stranger makes receiving upsetting news easier or does it just amplify the mood you already have. Is there a difference in same-sex vs opposite sex touch.
What a cold quotation! Haven’t read the source novel; see enough of the gist in the reviews to somewhat understand the situation that might have created those thoughts.
Please be sure to design the test to include the positive as well as the negative. Babies die without touch.
> It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy
It is also touch that is the surest way to ensure chastity (or at least faithfulness), loyalty, and monogamy.
As I remember the study with waitresses, a brief non-intimate touch (maybe top of the arm?) increased tips, but the customers didn’t even notice they had been touched, and had no reason to put forward as to why they had tipped more. I think that study has been done several times.
An recent research on touch & its influence on CB:
A Stranger’s Touch: Effects of Accidental Interpersonal Touch on Consumer Evaluations and Shopping Time
Author(s): Brett A. S. Martin
Source: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 39, No. 1 (June 2012), pp. 174-184
Dan: Was it your recent research into dishonesty that led you to the Stegner book? I was interested to read of his probable plagiarism from actual historical letters…
Just go to a ballroom dance studio. There was even a book written about the power of touch w/ respect to ballroom dancing. I’ll see if I can find the reference for you.
found it — you can check out Dance with Me: Ballroom Dancing and the Promise of Instant Intimacy by Julia A. Ericksen. A ballroom studio would already have the set-up!
I’m sure there are other good sources, but a relatively quick search of Psychology Today’s website (http://www.psychologytoday.com/) on “touch”, “behavioral”, and “economics” brought up these that might be relevant:
“Touching News” – http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200003/touching-news
“Why Have We Lost the Need for Physical Touch?” – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201010/why-have-we-lost-the-need-physical-touch
“Handshake or Hug? Why We Touch” – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-moral-molecule/200810/handshake-or-hug-why-we-touch
“Risk-Taking and (a Woman’s) Touch” – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolved-primate/201005/risk-taking-and-womans-touch
“Six Tips to Get Higher Tips” – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/let-their-words-do-the-talking/201207/six-tips-get-higher-tips
Maybe you can ask guys to rate girls and girls to rate guys. In 2 ways, one where in they shake hands and another jus gets look from a distance. Maybe this way we can know the influence of a touch.
I propose a test within a test. Invite subjects to an unrelated psychological test and then have an individual in the waiting room interact with the subjects, one subject at a time, and get them to try to do something. Group A receives touch, Group B does not. Have the subject fill out a questionnaire afterwards rating the individual, their proclivity to do what they were asked and some random questions describing the individual (Likert scale). Include in the rating of the individual “Touchy feely” or some other question that probes as to whether they realized they were touched. Then you have three population to compare.
A1 – Touched and aware
A2 – Touched and unaware
B – Untouched
Compare proclivity to do action across these groups and you can see if touch, and cognition of touch are factors.
In the protocol, tell the IRB that a mild deception will be employed in that subjects are not told the true purpose of the research. Tell the subjects in the consent form that the purpose of the experiment is to examine social interaction. Tell the IRB that after the subjects are run, subjects will be debriefed and told the true purpose and asked not to talk about the study to other people. I don’t think an experiment as Duffy outlined above would make hinky or twitchy an IRB that is used to social psychologists and their mild deceptions. It’s not like you’re giving any false feedback about subject’s character weaknesses as revealed by a bogus personality inventory, which would upset probably about 10% of undergrad subjects.
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