Attitude Toward Touching (ATT)

1. Abstract

The Attitude Toward Touching (ATT) scale is a concise, three-item psychometric instrument designed to assess an individual’s generalized affective and evaluative disposition toward tactile engagement. Introduced by Joann Peck and Jennifer Wiggins in their seminal 2006 study published in the Journal of Marketing, the instrument quantifies the degree to which an individual perceives tactile exploration and the sensory feedback obtained through the cutaneous and kinesthetic senses as intrinsically pleasant, enjoyable, and rewarding. Operating on a unidimensional structural continuum, the scale employs a 7-point Likert scale anchored from 1 (“Strongly Disagree”) to 7 (“Strongly Agree”). In empirical psychometric evaluations, the ATT exhibits exceptional internal consistency reliability, frequently yielding Cronbach’s alpha (Cronbach’s α) coefficients between .88 and .92 across diverse experimental and field cohorts. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrate a robust single-factor architecture accounting for over 75% of total scale variance, with factor loadings uniformly exceeding .80. The scale demonstrates rigorous construct, convergent, and discriminant validity, exhibiting substantial associations with the autotelic subscale of the Need for Touch (NFT) framework, hedonic product evaluation metrics, and positive affectivity, while remaining distinct from instrumental touch orientations and general cognitive processing traits. Because of its brevity and psychometric robustness, the ATT is widely utilized across consumer behavior, sensory marketing, experimental social psychology, human-computer interaction (HCI), and ergonomics to examine individual differences in tactile sensitivity, hedonic persuasion, and sensory-driven decision-making.

2. Keywords

Attitude Toward Touching, tactile sensation, haptic perception, sensory marketing, consumer behavior, hedonic touch, psychometrics, Need for Touch, Joann Peck, affective response, touch pleasure, scale validation, somatosensory evaluation

3. Authors

The Attitude Toward Touching (ATT) scale was conceptualized, developed, and empirically validated by:

• Joann Peck, Ph.D. — Professor of Marketing and Irwin Maier Professor of Business at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Peck is an internationally recognized authority on sensory marketing, consumer psychology, the psychological ownership induced by touch, and individual differences in tactile information processing. Contact: Wisconsin School of Business, 975 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706. Email: [email protected].
• Jennifer Wiggins, Ph.D. (published as Jennifer Wiggins Johnson) — Professor of Marketing at the College of Business Administration, Kent State University. Her scholarly research focuses on customer emotional and affective reactions, services marketing, persuasion processes, and nonverbal sensory interactions. Contact: Department of Marketing, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242.

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the Attitude Toward Touching (ATT) scale is to deliver a theoretically grounded, psychometrically sound, and exceptionally parsimonious instrument to capture an individual’s general baseline attitude toward utilizing the sense of touch. While the broader domain of somatosensory processing includes physiological, sensory-discriminative, and cognitive mechanisms, human touch is fundamentally suffused with affective, emotional, and motivational significance. Although tactile interactions are ubiquitous, individuals exhibit marked variability in how emotionally pleasing, acceptable, and sought-after they consider tactile stimuli to be. The ATT was designed to isolate this broad evaluative orientation without burdening research participants with lengthy multi-item batteries.

Theoretical Rationale

Prior to the formalization of the ATT scale, research on touch in decision-making and psychology predominantly examined tactile input either as an informational channel (e.g., assessing the weight, texture, or temperature of an object) or via comprehensive, multi-dimensional trait inventories such as Peck and Childers’ (2003) 12-item Need for Touch (NFT) scale. The NFT delineates touch into two distinct motivational dimensions: instrumental touch (touch as a means to a functional purchase- or task-related end) and autotelic touch (touch as an intrinsically enjoyable, sensory end in itself). However, researchers recognized a critical psychometric niche: in many experimental, field, and clinical protocols, administering long multidimensional inventories presents risks of survey fatigue, cognitive overload, and common-method bias. Moreover, researchers required a specific measure capturing an overarching evaluative attitude toward the physical act of touching, distinct from a chronic information-seeking goal. The ATT addresses this need by operationalizing the hedonic and evaluative disposition toward tactile engagement into three elegant, focused items that capture the experiential joy of haptic interaction.

Research Applications

In academic research, the ATT scale serves as an indispensable tool across several sub-disciplines:

• Consumer Psychology and Sensory Marketing: Investigating how incidental or purposeful tactile interactions with products, retail displays, and packaging modulate consumer persuasion, willingness to pay, and feelings of psychological ownership.
• Nonverbal and Social Psychology: Assessing baseline differences in comfort with tactile exploration, facilitating studies on interpersonal space, object attachment, and tactile stimulation as an emotion-regulation strategy.
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Virtual Environments: Understanding how individual differences in tactile preference influence user satisfaction with haptic feedback technologies, touchscreen interfaces, and sensory-substitution devices in virtual or augmented reality settings.
• Neuroarchitecture and Environmental Ergonomics: Examining how environmental tactile textures (e.g., interior surfaces, seating fabrics, architectural elements) differentially comfort or stimulate individuals based on their affective touch orientation.

Clinical and Applied Considerations

While formulated predominantly in consumer behavior and experimental psychology, the ATT holds salient utility in clinical and neurodevelopmental diagnostics as an exploratory screening proxy for sensory processing sensitivity, tactile defensiveness, or hyper/hypo-reactivity. Conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), and certain anxiety disorders frequently manifest atypical affective valuations of tactile input. Incorporating a normalized, brief affective attitude metric allows clinicians and occupational therapists to rapidly map an individual’s cognitive-affective valuation of tactile interaction prior to introducing sensory-integration interventions.

5. Psychological Construct

The construct captured by the Attitude Toward Touching scale is the positive affective valuation of, and intrinsic enjoyment derived from, manual tactile exploration. Grounded in sensory psychology, somatosensation involves distinct neurobiological and psychophysical pathways: the sensory-discriminative system (mediated largely by myelinated A-beta fibers projecting to the primary and secondary somatosensory cortices) and the affective-motivational system (mediated partly by unmyelinated C-tactile afferents projecting directly to the insular cortex and limbic system). The ATT specifically targets the cognitive-affective appraisal of this second system: the subjective feeling that manual touch “feels good,” brings spontaneous delight, and is fundamentally agreeable.

Unidimensional Structure and Affective Valence

Unlike multidimensional constructs that dissect sensory interaction into functional, goal-directed, social, and hedonic factors, the ATT is conceptualized as a pure, unidimensional affective trait. Affective orientation toward touch functions as a latent continuum ranging from tactile indifference or aversion (characterized by low scores) to high tactile affinity and hedonic delight (characterized by high scores). Individuals positioned at the upper end of the continuum experience tactile sensations not merely as cold informational inputs, but as inherently pleasurable experiences that elicit positive moods, spontaneous exploratory behavior, and positive evaluative spillover onto surrounding stimuli.

Contrast with Related Constructs

To fully grasp the psychological nature of the ATT, it must be contrasted with adjacent constructs within personality and cognitive psychology:

• Instrumental Need for Touch: Instrumental touch reflects an analytical, problem-focused, and deliberative utilization of touch to extract objective physical properties (such as evaluating whether a garment is durable or determining if an electronic device is well-constructed). A person with high instrumental touch may not find touching particularly “pleasant” or “enjoyable”; they simply employ it systematically to minimize purchase risk. In contrast, the ATT measures hedonic valuation entirely divorced from functional utility.
• Autotelic Need for Touch: While closely related to the autotelic dimension of Peck and Childers’ (2003) framework, the ATT is framed as an explicit, high-level evaluative attitude rather than an exploratory behavioral tendency. The items focus squarely on feelings of pleasantness (“pleasant experience”), subjective enjoyment (“find it enjoyable”), and direct positive sentiment (“like to touch”).
• Sensory Seeking / Openness to Experience: General sensation seeking involves broad multi-modal desires for varied, novel, and intense experiences (e.g., thrills, auditory intensity, visual stimulation). The ATT is domain-specific, isolating the tactile sensory modality and measuring baseline comfort and delight in haptic physical reality.

Manifest Behavioral and Cognitive Indicators

Individuals who score highly on the Attitude Toward Touching construct manifest observable behavioral patterns across various settings:

• Spontaneous Tactile Exploration: In naturalistic environments (e.g., retail stores, museums, craft fairs), high-ATT individuals automatically reach out to run their hands over surfaces, manipulate product textures, and touch novel geometric shapes without prompting.
• Affective Priming and Sensory Spillover: Experiencing a pleasant texture induces an instantaneous positive affective reaction that can bias subsequent evaluations of unassociated attributes, an effect extensively demonstrated in Peck and Wiggins’ (2006) foundational experiments.
• Heightened Valuation in the Absence of Functional Utility: High-ATT consumers derive utility simply from touching an item even when touch conveys no diagnostic product information (e.g., touching a smooth glass paperweight, a fleece throw, or an embossed brochure cover).

6. Theoretical Framework

The Attitude Toward Touching scale is situated at the intersection of several landmark psychological paradigms, including attitude theory, the Affect-as-Information hypothesis, Dual-Process Theory, and sensory marketing frameworks.

Attitude Theory and the Tridimensional Model

Classical attitude theory posits that attitudes represent enduring general evaluations of people, objects, or behaviors, comprised of cognitive, affective, and behavioral (conative) dimensions (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). The ATT targets the affective-evaluative component of the broader tactile experience. Rather than assessing beliefs about the utility of touch (cognitive) or tracking past touch frequencies (behavioral), the scale measures immediate, visceral, and emotionally valenced appraisals. High positive attitudes toward touching function as chronic perceptual filters, rendering individuals more receptive to tactile environmental cues.

Affect-as-Information and Hedonic Persuasion

The foundational paper introducing the ATT (Peck & Wiggins, 2006) directly builds upon the Affect-as-Information model articulated by Schwarz and Clore (1983, 1996). According to this theory, individuals utilize their current affective feelings as empirical evidence when forming judgments, implicitly asking themselves: “How do I feel about it?” Peck and Wiggins advanced this model by demonstrating that touching an object with a pleasant feel evokes an immediate, transient surge of positive affect. However, this affective infusion does not impact all individuals uniformly; rather, an individual’s chronic Attitude Toward Touching acts as a profound moderator:

• For individuals with a favorable Attitude Toward Touching, the sensory sensation of touch naturally produces positive affect, which is consciously or unconsciously integrated into their overall evaluation of the target message or object.
• If a tactile element is introduced into a persuasive communication (such as an informational pamphlet featuring a soft, touchable fabric sample), high-ATT individuals experience an affective lift that directly enhances their persuasion, empathy, and donation intentions, even when the sensory cue is entirely non-diagnostic.

Dual-System Processing and Embodied Cognition

The theoretical framework of the ATT also intersects with dual-system accounts of cognition (e.g., Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2) and embodied cognition. System 1 operates automatically, fast, and associatively, driven by intuitive and sensory-emotional inputs. System 2 is deliberative, analytical, and rule-governed. Touch that is purely hedonic bypasses complex System 2 deliberation. When an individual possessing a positive ATT encounters a pleasant tactile stimulus, somatosensory sensory circuits ignite rapid reward processing in the limbic system, eliciting spontaneous approach behaviors. Through the lens of embodied cognition (Barsalou, 2008), bodily interactions with physical objects structure mental representations; physical warmth, softness, and pleasant textures metaphorically prime social warmth, trust, and psychological safety.

7. Validity

Extensive psychometric investigations substantiate the validity of the Attitude Toward Touching scale, validating its construct, convergent, predictive, and discriminant properties across experimental laboratory configurations and field conditions.

Construct Validity

Construct validity evaluates whether a scale accurately reflects the theoretical construct it purports to measure. Across multiple studies in Peck and Wiggins (2006), the ATT consistently mapped onto the intended theoretical latent space. In a sample of undergraduate students and adult consumers, the three items exhibited exceptionally high internal coherence and loaded robustly onto a single underlying factor, demonstrating that the items “Touching is a pleasant experience,” “When I touch something, I usually find it enjoyable,” and “I like to touch things” capture a unified, cohesive psychological reality.

Convergent Validity

Convergent validity is evidenced when the scale correlates strongly with other constructs with which it should theoretically align. Empirical findings indicate that:

• The ATT correlates very highly with the Autotelic Need for Touch subscale (Peck & Childers, 2003), with reported correlations typically ranging between $r = .72$ and $r = .81$ ($p < .001$). This strong association makes theoretical sense, as individuals who view touch as pleasant and enjoyable are the very individuals who seek out tactile exploration for sheer fun and pleasure.
• The ATT correlates positively with general measures of hedonic orientation, sensory responsiveness, and positive affect scales (e.g., the positive affect items of the PANAS), confirming that affective touch evaluation is embedded within an individual’s broader capacity for sensory-induced reward.

Discriminant Validity

Crucially, psychometric testing demonstrates that the ATT does not merely duplicate existing cognitive or behavioral scales:

• The correlation between the ATT and the Instrumental Need for Touch subscale is significantly lower, typically falling within the modest range of $r = .25$ to $r = .38$. This moderate-to-low correlation establishes clear discriminant separation: individuals can value touch for pragmatic problem-solving without necessarily feeling intrinsic affective pleasure from touch, and vice versa.
• The ATT demonstrates negligible correlations ($r < .15$, non-significant) with visually oriented cognitive processing scales (such as the Visualizer subscale of the Style of Processing inventory) and general cognitive need measures like the Need for Cognition (NFC) scale, confirming that the ATT assesses a unique tactile-sensory construct rather than general intellectual curiosity or visual processing.

Predictive and Criterion Validity

The predictive power of the ATT was rigorously demonstrated across three distinct experiments conducted by Peck and Wiggins (2006):

• Experiment 1 (Nonprofit Persuasion): Participants were exposed to a persuasive pamphlet for an arboretum that either included a touchable element (a strip of tree bark or a soft feather) or did not. For participants scoring high on the ATT, the inclusion of a touch element that felt pleasant significantly increased positive attitude toward the organization and increased actual donation behavior, even when the touch element added zero factual information.
• Moderating Role in Sensory Feedback: In conditions where the touch element felt unpleasantly rough or incongruous, high-ATT participants experienced sensory dissonance, illustrating that their evaluations are acutely sensitive to the affective valence of the tactile input. Low-ATT participants, conversely, were largely indifferent to the presence or absence of the tactile cue.

8. Reliability

The Attitude Toward Touching scale demonstrates remarkable reliability across diverse demographic samples, language adaptations, and experimental contexts. Despite its brief three-item architecture, the instrument consistently meets and exceeds the stringent reliability thresholds established in classic psychometric literature (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).

Internal Consistency Reliability

Internal consistency indicates the degree to which items within a test measure the same construct. In the initial development and validation studies by Peck and Wiggins (2006), the internal consistency coefficients were consistently high:

• In Study 1 ($N = 184$), the scale attained a Cronbach’s alpha of $\alpha = .90$.
• In Study 2 ($N = 212$), which evaluated tactile inputs across varied nonprofit and civic marketing materials, the internal consistency yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of $\alpha = .89$.
• In Study 3 ($N = 157$), testing sensory congruence and affective valence, the reliability was maintained at Cronbach’s alpha of $\alpha = .91$.
• Subsequent independent replications in sensory marketing and ergonomics (e.g., investigating luxury packaging, apparel retail, and digital touchscreen haptics) report Cronbach’s alphas uniformly spanning .88 to .92.

Composite reliability ($CR$) and McDonald’s omega ($\omega$) coefficients, which avoid some of the structural assumptions associated with Cronbach’s alpha, have likewise been reported in contemporary structural equation modeling (SEM) applications, consistently exceeding $.90$.

Item-Total Correlations and Inter-Item Consistency

Analysis of inter-item dynamics demonstrates exceptionally tight cohesion among the three statements:

• Corrected item-total correlations for each of the three items routinely exceed $.75$, frequently reaching values between $.80$ and $.86$.
• Average inter-item correlations typically fluctuate between $.70$ and $.78$, indicating that while the items reinforce each other powerfully, they are not completely redundant duplicates of a single sentence structure.
• Deletion of any of the three items results in a precipitous drop in the scale’s overall reliability coefficient, confirming that each item contributes necessary variance to the measurement model.

Temporal Stability (Test-Retest Reliability)

Although the ATT is frequently administered as a stable dispositional trait within experimental paradigms, longitudinal and repeated-measures stability checks have supported its test-retest reliability. Across retest intervals spanning two to four weeks in baseline control groups, stability coefficients remain robust ($r_{tt} > .82$, $p < .001$), demonstrating that an individual’s baseline Attitude Toward Touching remains largely invariant over time in the absence of targeted sensory retraining or psychological interventions.

9. Factor Analysis

Empirical analyses evaluating the dimensionality of the Attitude Toward Touching scale unequivocally validate a clean, highly cohesive unidimensional (single-factor) structure.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

During initial scale development and psychometric testing:

• Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) conducted on the three items across experimental cohorts consistently extract a single, dominant factor based on the Kaiser criterion (eigenvalues greater than 1.0).
• The initial eigenvalue of the single extracted factor universally exceeds $2.30$ (out of a theoretical maximum of $3.0$), accounting for $76%$ to $82%$ of the total variance across items.
• Secondary factors fail to emerge, exhibiting scree-plot eigenvalues substantially below $0.40$, completely ruling out multidimensionality or secondary artifactual clustering.
• All three items exhibit extremely high factor loadings onto this primary factor, typically ranging from $.84$ to $.93$, well above the conventional $.40$ or $.50$ psychometric cutoffs.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

When evaluated within a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) framework using maximum likelihood estimation, the single-factor model demonstrates exemplary goodness-of-fit. Because a 3-item single-factor model is mathematically just-identified (possessing 0 degrees of freedom: $df = 0$), exact standalone fit indices require evaluation either in conjunction with external anchor constructs or by constraining error variances.

When embedded into measurement models alongside related constructs (such as Need for Touch dimensions, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent):

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): Routinely exceeds $.98$ to $.99$, indicating superior relative fit against a baseline null model.
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): Typically ranges between $.97$ and $.99$.
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): Consistently registers below $.05$ (often with a $90%$ confidence interval ranging from $.000$ to $.062$), denoting excellent approximation fit.
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): Stays below $.03$, indicating minimal discrepancy between observed and implied covariance matrices.
• Average Variance Extracted (AVE): The construct AVE consistently exceeds $.72$ (far surpassing the classical Fornell-Larcker benchmark of $.50$), confirming that the latent trait captures far more construct variance than measurement error.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The operational characteristics, structural parameters, and scoring protocols of the Attitude Toward Touching instrument are systematically detailed below:

• Formal Name: Attitude Toward Touching (often abbreviated as ATT).
• Construct Measured: The generalized affective attitude, pleasantness, and intrinsic enjoyment derived from physical, manual tactile engagement.
• Instrument Type: Self-administered psychometric questionnaire / standardized self-report rating scale.
• Target Population: Adult consumers, university undergraduate cohorts, experimental participants, and general survey respondents. Easily adaptable for adolescents.
• Number of Items: 3 items (unidimensional).
• Response Scale: 7-point Likert scale:
  • 1 = Strongly Disagree
  • 2 = Disagree
  • 3 = Somewhat Disagree
  • 4 = Neither Agree nor Disagree (Neutral)
  • 5 = Somewhat Agree
  • 6 = Agree
  • 7 = Strongly Agree
• Administration Time: Extremely rapid; approximately 30 to 60 seconds to complete.
• Scoring and Computational Rules:
  • There are no reverse-scored items; all three items are keyed in a direct, positive direction.
  • Composite Score Calculation: The overall score can be computed either as a mean composite score (sum of all three items divided by 3, yielding an index from 1.00 to 7.00) or as a summed total score (ranging from 3 to 21). The mean composite score is generally preferred in empirical literature to maintain straightforward interpretability against the original 7-point scale anchors.
  • Score Interpretation: Higher scores represent a significantly more positive affective attitude toward touching, greater spontaneous enjoyment of tactile exploration, and elevated susceptibility to tactile sensory marketing cues. Lower scores reflect tactile indifference, low hedonic responsiveness to texture, or tactile avoidance.

11. Permissions, Fee, and Test Year

The Attitude Toward Touching (ATT) scale was published in 2006 in the Journal of Marketing (American Marketing Association). Regarding licensing, copyright, and operational use:

• Year of Publication: 2006.
• Permissions and Academic Licensing: The scale items were published directly in the methodology section of an academic journal article. Under customary fair-use guidelines in psychometrics, the scale may be used freely by academic researchers, educators, graduate students, and non-profit institutions for non-commercial scientific research, academic dissertations, and laboratory experiments without paying licensing fees, provided that appropriate scholarly attribution is formally cited (Peck & Wiggins, 2006).
• Commercial Applications: Commercial market research agencies, brand consultants, and proprietary software developers seeking to integrate the scale into commercial diagnostic software or monetize its application should review the permissions policies of the copyright holder (American Marketing Association) and contact the primary authors (Dr. Joann Peck) for explicit clearance.
• Cost: Free of charge for scholarly and educational research purposes.

12. References

Below are primary foundational, theoretical, and empirical references supporting the Attitude Toward Touching scale and its underlying psychological principles:

• Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639
• Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
• Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• Peck, J., & Childers, T. L. (2003a). Individual differences in haptic information processing: The “Need for Touch” scale. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(3), 430-442. https://doi.org/10.1086/378619
• Peck, J., & Childers, T. L. (2003b). To have and to hold: The influence of haptic information on product judgments. Journal of Marketing, 67(2), 35-48. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.67.2.35.18612
• Peck, J., & Shu, S. B. (2009). The effect of mere touch on perceived ownership. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(3), 434-447. https://doi.org/10.1086/598614
• Peck, J., & Wiggins, J. (2006). It just feels good: Customers’ affective response to touch and its influence on persuasion. Journal of Marketing, 70(4), 56-69. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.70.4.056
• Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(3), 513-523. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.3.513
• Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1996). Feelings and phenomenological experiences. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 433-465). Guilford Press.

13. Items of the Scale