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The combination of the Great Recession (2007–2009) and the availability of data on fundraising effectiveness led to a surge of research on individual charitable donation behavior. The goal of this chapter is to conduct a systematic review of the literature on individual donations published after the start of the Great Recession with a focus on identifying best practices for arts organizations. The results reveal five primary research streams: antecedents and drivers of individual donation behavior, social influences on individual donation behavior, crosswise dynamics among revenue sources, transparency and accountability, and optimizing fundraising appeals. Current findings in these five streams suggest that individual donation behavior is a complex, global phenomenon that goes far beyond an individual’s response to a specific fundraising request. Rather, it is influenced by the totality of potential donor interactions with the organization, as well as the influence of donors’ social networks and of the organization’s ecological environment. A contextual approach to understanding individual donation behavior is likely to yield rich understandings of both the decision to donate and the potential repercussions of an arts organization’s fundraising strategy decisions.

BackgroundGermline genetic testing affords multiple opportunities for women with breast cancer, however, current UK NHS models for delivery of germline genetic testing are clinician-intensive and only a minority of breast cancer cases access testing.MethodsWe designed a rapid, digital pathway, supported by a genetics specialist hotline, for delivery of germline testing ofBRCA1/BRCA2/PALB2(BRCA-testing), integrated into routine UK NHS breast cancer care. We piloted the pathway, as part of the larger BRCA-DIRECT study, in 130 unselected patients with breast cancer and gathered preliminary data from a randomised comparison of delivery of pretest information digitally (fully digital pathway) or via telephone consultation with a genetics professional (partially digital pathway).ResultsUptake of genetic testing was 98.4%, with good satisfaction reported for both the fully and partially digital pathways. Similar outcomes were observed in both arms regarding patient knowledge score and anxiety, with ConclusionPilot data indicate preliminary demonstration of feasibility and acceptability of a fully digital pathway for BRCA-testing and support proceeding to a full powered study for evaluation of non-inferiority of the fully digital pathway, detailed quantitative assessment of outcomes and operational economic analyses.Trial registration numberISRCTN87845055.

This research examines the relationship between crowdfunding campaigns by nonprofit performing arts organizations and their overall fundraising portfolio. Using a dataset compiled from the CrowdBerkeley Initiative and the Cultural Data Project, we find an important link between campaign success and organization age. For young organizations, crowdfunding success attracts funding in the subsequent year, while a failed campaign significantly hampers the organization’s ability to raise funds, suggesting that crowdfunding acts as a legitimating signal. In contrast, older organizations appear to be insulated from the negative effects of a failed campaign. In addition, higher amounts raised in the campaign are associated with a substitution or “crowding out” effect for other types of funding for young organizations, but this effect reverses for older organizations. This suggests that crowdfunding should not only be considered a tool for younger organizations, but also holds promise for established organizations.

Funder: Victorian Cancer Agency, Funder: NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, Funder: Cancer Research UK, Funder: Cancer Council Tasmania, Funder: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Funder: Cancer Australia, Funder: NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Funder: Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, Funder: Cancer Council South Australia, Funder: Swedish Cancer Society, Funder: NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, Funder: Institut Català de la Salut, Funder: Cancer Council Victoria, Funder: Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Funder: National Institutes of Health, BACKGROUND: Lynch syndrome is a rare familial cancer syndrome caused by pathogenic variants in the mismatch repair genes MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, or PMS2, that cause predisposition to various cancers, predominantly colorectal and endometrial cancer. Data are emerging that pathogenic variants in mismatch repair genes increase the risk of early-onset aggressive prostate cancer. The IMPACT study is prospectively assessing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in men with germline mismatch repair pathogenic variants. Here, we report the usefulness of PSA screening, prostate cancer incidence, and tumour characteristics after the first screening round in men with and without these germline pathogenic variants. METHODS: The IMPACT study is an international, prospective study. Men aged 40-69 years without a previous prostate cancer diagnosis and with a known germline pathogenic variant in the MLH1, MSH2, or MSH6 gene, and age-matched male controls who tested negative for a familial pathogenic variant in these genes were recruited from 34 genetic and urology clinics in eight countries, and underwent a baseline PSA screening. Men who had a PSA level higher than 3·0 ng/mL were offered a transrectal, ultrasound-guided, prostate biopsy and a histopathological analysis was done. All participants are undergoing a minimum of 5 years' annual screening. The primary endpoint was to determine the incidence, stage, and pathology of screening-detected prostate cancer in carriers of pathogenic variants compared with non-carrier controls. We used Fisher's exact test to compare the number of cases, cancer incidence, and positive predictive values of the PSA cutoff and biopsy between carriers and non-carriers and the differences between disease types (ie, cancer vs no cancer, clinically significant cancer vs no cancer). We assessed screening outcomes and tumour characteristics by pathogenic variant status. Here we present results from the first round of PSA screening in the IMPACT study. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00261456, and is now closed to accrual. FINDINGS: Between Sept 28, 2012, and March 1, 2020, 828 men were recruited (644 carriers of mismatch repair pathogenic variants [204 carriers of MLH1, 305 carriers of MSH2, and 135 carriers of MSH6] and 184 non-carrier controls [65 non-carriers of MLH1, 76 non-carriers of MSH2, and 43 non-carriers of MSH6]), and in order to boost the sample size for the non-carrier control groups, we randomly selected 134 non-carriers from the BRCA1 and BRCA2 cohort of the IMPACT study, who were included in all three non-carrier cohorts. Men were predominantly of European ancestry (899 [93%] of 953 with available data), with a mean age of 52·8 years (SD 8·3). Within the first screening round, 56 (6%) men had a PSA concentration of more than 3·0 ng/mL and 35 (4%) biopsies were done. The overall incidence of prostate cancer was 1·9% (18 of 962; 95% CI 1·1-2·9). The incidence among MSH2 carriers was 4·3% (13 of 305; 95% CI 2·3-7·2), MSH2 non-carrier controls was 0·5% (one of 210; 0·0-2·6), MSH6 carriers was 3·0% (four of 135; 0·8-7·4), and none were detected among the MLH1 carriers, MLH1 non-carrier controls, and MSH6 non-carrier controls. Prostate cancer incidence, using a PSA threshold of higher than 3·0 ng/mL, was higher in MSH2 carriers than in MSH2 non-carrier controls (4·3% vs 0·5%; p=0·011) and MSH6 carriers than MSH6 non-carrier controls (3·0% vs 0%; p=0·034). The overall positive predictive value of biopsy using a PSA threshold of 3·0 ng/mL was 51·4% (95% CI 34·0-68·6), and the overall positive predictive value of a PSA threshold of 3·0 ng/mL was 32·1% (20·3-46·0). INTERPRETATION: After the first screening round, carriers of MSH2 and MSH6 pathogenic variants had a higher incidence of prostate cancer compared with age-matched non-carrier controls. These findings support the use of targeted PSA screening in these men to identify those with clinically significant prostate cancer. Further annual screening rounds will need to confirm these findings. FUNDING: Cancer Research UK, The Ronald and Rita McAulay Foundation, the National Institute for Health Research support to Biomedical Research Centres (The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust; Oxford; Manchester and the Cambridge Clinical Research Centre), Mr and Mrs Jack Baker, the Cancer Council of Tasmania, Cancer Australia, Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Cancer Council of Victoria, Cancer Council of South Australia, the Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia, Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), the Institut Català de la Salut, Autonomous Government of Catalonia, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute, Swedish Cancer Society, General Hospital in Malmö Foundation for Combating Cancer.

Genetic testing for cancer predisposition has been curtailed by the cost of sequencing, and testing has been restricted by eligibility criteria. As the cost of sequencing decreases, the question of expanding multi-gene cancer panels to a broader population arises. We evaluated how many additional actionable genetic variants are returned by unrestricted panel testing in the private sector compared to those which would be returned by adhering to current NHS eligibility criteria. We reviewed 152 patients referred for multi-gene cancer panels in the private sector between 2014 and 2016. Genetic counselling and disclosure of all results was standard of care provided by the Consultant. Every panel conducted was compared to current eligibility criteria. A germline pathogenic / likely pathogenic variant (P/LP), in a gene relevant to the personal or family history of cancer, was detected in 15 patients (detection rate of 10%). 46.7% of those found to have the P/LP variants (7 of 15), or 4.6% of the entire set (7 of 152), did not fulfil NHS eligibility criteria. 46.7% of P/LP variants in this study would have been missed by national testing guidelines, all of which were actionable. However, patients who do not fulfil eligibility criteria have a higher Variant of Uncertain Significance (VUS) burden. We demonstrated that the current England NHS threshold for genetic testing is missing pathogenic variants which would alter management in 4.6%, nearly 1 in 20 individuals. However, the clinical service burden that would ensue is a detection of VUS of 34%.

Research has recognized that in addition to consumer–brand relationships, consumers are engaged in social networks of consumer-to-consumer interactions, which increasingly take place online through virtual brand communities. However, little attention has been paid to how consumer-to-consumer influence within virtual brand communities plays a role when brands behave badly. This research examines the role of network embeddedness, specifically network centrality and network density, and psychological ownership in consumer responses to a brand transgression. Across three studies of virtual brand communities and one of offline brand communities, we document an inherent conflict for those who occupy a central position within a brand community. Central consumers are more likely to punish the brand for the transgression, but centrality also leads to greater psychological ownership of the brand community and the brand, which makes consumers less likely to punish the brand. Psychological ownership also leads to a higher likelihood of helping the brand recover from the transgression, creating an additional conflict for central consumers. Network density resolves these conflicts by strengthening the negative relationship between psychological ownership and likelihood to punish the brand, but only in online brand communities where punishing and helping behaviors are more visible and more likely to act as reputational signals for the central consumer. This suggests that firms should encourage the formation of dense virtual brand communities and cultivate psychological ownership among central community members in order to protect themselves from negative consequences in the wake of a transgression.

Research demonstrates a tradeoff between service quantity and service quality that creates a tension for firms who wish to incentivize both aspects of service performance. We propose a category of speed-intensive services in which prompt responsiveness is the primary driver of service quality. In these firms, service quantity and quality should exhibit a positive interrelationship. Daily data on service quantity and quality performance were collected for 24 months, for a total of 1414 observations, from a telephone directory service firm, an affiliate of major telecommunication firm in an Asian country. We use a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation to test their interrelationship and the effect of financial incentives on service performance. Contrary to the typical tradeoff effect, the results reveal that service quantity positively affects service quality performance and vice versa. In addition, we surprisingly find that incentives have no effect on service quantity performance and decrease service quality performance, and that overall performance declines with employee experience. This suggests that these firms do not face a tradeoff between service quantity and quality, but may face a long-term tradeoff between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

Background Since April 2013, the UK’s National Health Service Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP) centers have been obliged to provide services for women at the highest risk of breast cancer, including those carrying highly penetrant single gene mutations (BRCA1, BRCA2, TP53). Since then, such individuals previously undergoing surveillance in the Royal Marsden Hospital were referred to their local NHSBSP centers. We aimed to assess patient experience of surveillance provided by local NHSBSP services at 1 and 3 years after repatriation. Patients and Methods High-risk gene mutation carriers referred to the NHSBSP for breast cancer surveillance were identified from a departmental database in the Cancer Genetics Unit and invited to complete questionnaires about their experience of surveillance under this new pathway, first in 2014 and again in 2016. Results Three hundred forty-six individuals were invited to participate in 2014, of whom 182 responded (53%). A total of 464 patients were invited in 2016, of whom 246 (53%) completed the second questionnaire. Ninety-four percent of patients with residual breast tissue received some screening at the first (n = 161) and second (n = 185) time points. Ninety-one percent of patients (n = 146) received at least recommended surveillance in the year preceding the initial survey, a proportion decreasing slightly by the second time point (n = 164, 87%). Seventeen percent of individuals required additional diagnostic investigations, with cancers detected in 2%. These proportions remained stable between surveys. Conclusion Repatriation of high-risk individuals from Royal Marsden Hospital to NHSBSP centers has been successfully accomplished. Most individuals received appropriate recommended annual surveillance. Further improvements are required to ensure equal and timely provision of recommended surveillance.

To fully understand legitimacy as a complex construct, it is necessary to capture both collective perceptions and individual judgments. Much of the empirical research on legitimacy has focused on measuring the collective perceptions of groups of evaluators or critical institutions. This research develops and validates a psychometric measure of individual perceptions of pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy. Across seven studies, we demonstrate consistent reliability and scale structure, as well as convergent, discriminant, nomological, and predictive validity. We further show the generalizability and robustness of the measure across a variety of organizations and industries. This measure will advance empirical research on legitimacy by enabling researchers to capture the perceptions of individual evaluators directly and permit the comparison of results across studies.

Background For patients with early breast cancer, knowledge of germline BRCA1/2 status increasingly influences management as well as informing future cancer risk for patients and their families. As access to germline testing expands, it is important that this benefit is extended to survivors as well as to the newly diagnosed.Methods In collaboration with our breast unit colleagues and by embedding a Senior Genetic Counsellor in the virtual multidisciplinary meeting, we identified patients suitable for genetics review 5 years after their breast cancer diagnosis.Results Between May 2015 and December 2018, 2044 patients were discussed, of whom 769 patients were identified for notes review by Genetics. Of these, 275 had already undergone testing and 47 had confirmed germline pathogenic variants in BRCA1/2. A further 463 were recommended for referral. One hundred and eighty patients were subsequently offered testing with 161 accepting (161/180, 89%). Nine patients were found to harbour pathogenic variants in either BRCA1 or BRCA2 (9/161, 6%). Of the initial 2044 patients reviewed, 2.7% (56/2044) are now known to carry germline pathogenic variants.Conclusion The survivorship setting provides an opportunity for genetic review underpinned by collaborative working between cancer specialists and the genetics team.

This research examines the effect of message framing on consumers’ chosen prices in pay what you want pricing. Across three field studies, the traditional Pay What You Want message frame consistent...

Consumers have been observed to engage in deceptive consumption behaviors, including hiding their brand consumption and pretending to consume brands that they actually do not. This article defines deceptive consumption behaviors as the deliberate falsification or concealment of an individual’s consumption behaviors pertaining to a brand. The present work recognizes deceptive consumption behaviors as a relatively unexplored construct in the consumer behavior literature. Therefore, this article sets out not only to define and delineate the various types of deceptive consumption behaviors but also to explore the underlying motivations that would result in consumers engaging in this practice. We propose that these behaviors are a response to an identity threat that occurs due to goal conflict between personal and social identities. We further propose a typology to illustrate the various behaviors that consumers may employ when engaging in deceptive consumption. We explore the consequences of engaging in deceptive consumption behaviors for the consumer as well as for the consumer’s relationship with the brand and the group. Finally, we identify avenues for future research on deceptive consumption behaviors.

Previous research on consumer nostalgia has concluded that nostalgic feelings primarily have a positive effect on consumers, boosting positive feelings and affective responses. However, evidence suggests that consumers who hold nostalgic feelings toward a specific brand sometimes respond negatively to updated or modified versions of the brand. This research tests the moderating effect of consumers’ brand nostalgia on their responses to changes to a brand. Across four studies, the authors find that consumers who are nostalgic toward a specific brand exhibit a positive bias toward the original version of the brand that leads them to perceive the brand as having changed more than do less nostalgic consumers. Further, when the change to the brand is perceived to be large, individuals who are highly nostalgic for a brand show a significantly sharper decrease in reported attitude and behavioral intentions toward the changed brand than do their less nostalgic counterparts. This effect is in opposition to the positive effects of a general tendency toward nostalgia proneness. These results are replicated across multiple product categories and both manipulated and real changes, and the effect is found to be mediated by the consumer's biased perception of how much the brand has changed.

This research seeks to expand the current understanding of nostalgia towards childhood as it relates to consumer brand relationships and provide a framework for better understanding the phenomenon as it appears in both academic and real-world settings. In this paper, the authors use existing literature on nostalgia and consumer interviews to define childhood brand nostalgia as a positively valenced emotional attachment to a brand because of the brand's association with fond memories of the individual's non-recent lived past. A scale to measure an individual's childhood brand nostalgia is developed and tested to ensure convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The scale is found to capture individual differences in nostalgic feelings towards a single brand, and individuals are found to have varying levels of nostalgic feelings for multiple brands across multiple product categories. This demonstrates the usefulness of this scale in determining a consumer's nostalgia towards a particular brand from their childhood. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Research on psychological ownership in marketing has focused primarily on consumers’ ownership of products. Drawing on the management literature that has examined psychological ownership of an organization by its employees, this chapter argues that consumers can also perceive psychological ownership of an organization and that this ownership is likely to occur at the collective level. Consumers are most likely to perceive collective psychological ownership of an organization when their relationship with the organization enables them to express their social identities and to fulfill one of the other three motivations underlying psychological ownership: effectance, need for stimulation, and need for home. Specific organizations are well suited to foster collective psychological ownership, including charities and nonprofit organizations, organizations that market hedonic and experiential goods, and place-based services and experiences. An empirical study of consumers’ psychological ownership of a charitable organization, using a minimal group experimental design, reveals that when the organization is perceived to be a member of the consumer’s ingroup, as opposed to an out-group, perceptions of collective psychological ownership are greater. This effect was robust across two different charitable organizations and for both donors and nondonors to the organization. Consumers were not found to differ in their identification with the organization or their individual psychological ownership of the organization, suggesting that this is a collective-level phenomenon.

Purpose– This paper aims to examine how conflicting brand preferences between a social group and an individual may lead the individual to hide their consumption. Specifically, the authors examine the conditions under which hiding behaviour is most likely to occur and the impact of susceptibility to interpersonal influence on the decision to hide.Design/methodology/approach– Two experiments were conducted using a combination of student and adult samples. Analysis of variance and regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.Findings– Findings suggest that individuals are most likely to hide their consumption behaviour when group sanctions for non-conformity are severe, but the likelihood of being caught is low. Further, individual differences in susceptibility to interpersonal influence are found to affect individuals’ decisions to hide their consumption behaviour.Research limitations/implications– By identifying hidden consumption behaviour as a possible response to preference conflict, this research contributes to the literature on social influence and extends our understanding of how consumers behave when influenced by social group pressure.Originality/value– The present work establishes hiding behaviour (a concept which has yet to be thoroughly explored in the literature) as an alternative yet viable response to preference conflict.

As arts organizations frequently seek purchases and donations from the same consumers, one of their challenges is identifying which consumers are likely to become donors in the future. With all of the data currently available, many organizations are looking to their databases to predict future consumer behavior. In the customer relationship management literature, models have been developed that allow organizations to use consumer purchase data to predict future purchase behavior. This goal of this research is to extend this literature to determine whether it is possible to predict consumer willingness to donate using purchase behavior data. It is not expected that purchase behavior data will be nearly as accurate a predictor of future donation behavior as past donation behavior would be. Rather, the goal is simply to determine whether organizations would be able to use purchase behavior data as a proxy for relationship perceptions to improve their ability to identify prospective donors among their consumers. Three commonly used methods of prediction based on past behavior are tested using a combination of purchase behavior data and consumer surveys: a segmentation approach, a recency/frequency/monetary value model, and a Pareto/NBD customer relationship management model. Across all three methods, purchase behavior is found to be a poor predictor of both customer relationship perceptions and willingness to donate to the organization.

This research represents the first systematic empirical examination of the motivation to spread word of mouth about consumption activities in order to self-express, a phenomenon that has been observed in both the academic literature and the popular press. Consumption-focused self-expression is a motivation to engage in word-of-mouth communication that is distinct from other word-of-mouth motivations that have been discussed in the literature. This work defines consumption-focused self-expression word of mouth as communication about one's consumption activities for the purpose of expressing one's self-concept and attracting attention to oneself. A scale to measure consumption-focused self-expression word of mouth is developed and shown to exhibit a consistent scale structure, acceptable reliability, and convergent, discriminant, nomological, and predictive validity. Scores on the consumption-focused self-expression word-of-mouth scale are shown to predict differences in the quantity and nature of consumers’ actual word-of-mouth communications via the social networking Web site Facebook.

Pay-what-you-want pricing mechanisms increasingly are popular among practitioners and interesting to marketing researchers. Prior research only examines strategies in which consumers choose any price without guidance from the firm. Firms currently use several external reference price strategies to influence consumers' chosen prices in pay-what-you-want pricing, including minimum, maximum, and suggested prices. This research examines these strategies' effectiveness to determine which one provides the highest yield and the most benefit to the firm. Four studies show these external reference prices act as anchors, biasing consumers' chosen prices in the direction of the external reference price. Surprisingly, study results find not using external reference prices may be the most beneficial strategy for the firm. Both minimum and maximum prices exhibit a negative influence on consumers' chosen prices in comparison to not offering an external reference price. However, a suggested price strategy appears to be an effective means of maximizing the firm's yield while giving consumers the freedom to choose their own price, especially when the suggested price is close to the consumer's internal reference price.

Previous research has shown that a touch or haptic element attached to a persuasive appeal can increase persuasion, particularly for individuals who have a clear preference for touch to enjoy its sensory feedback (high autotelics). This research extends previous work by including involvement in the context of an appeal by a nonprofit. We find, in an experiment where we manipulate involvement, that when a haptic element is present, high autotelics are more persuaded regardless of their involvement with the message. However, for low autotelics, a haptic element increases persuasion under conditions of low versus high involvement with the message. A second experiment measures involvement and finds that again, under low involvement conditions, both high and low autotelics are persuaded by a touch element. Finally, a field study with a local symphony orchestra is conducted in which involvement with the message is low but involvement with the company is high. In this case, a touch element is only persuasive for high autotelics. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

As computer technology continues to pervade every facet of life, the study of video game playing becomes more relevant. Studies show that sex differences continue to exist between men and women, boys and girls, in video game experience, favoring males. Few studies show any overlap in preferences between young men and women in their video gaming choices. The current study surveyed over 2,000 college undergraduates for video game experience, preferences, and self-efficacy. Although it was found that men play video games more often, have had more experience, and feel more confident in their game playing ability, a moderate female gaming population was found to exist, who also play video games regularly. Almost as many similarities as differences were found between men and women in their gaming preferences. Suggestions and implications for the video game industry are discussed.

We develop a more comprehensive measure of discretionary, extra-role behaviors that customers engage in to help a company. While customer helping behaviors have been studied previously, attempts to develop valid measures have been limited. We use the validation process for the Organizational Citizenship Behavior scale as a model to develop and validate a new scale measuring a comprehensive range of customer helping behaviors. We identify multiple dimensions of customer helping behaviors that are engaged in by the same customers, driven by the same antecedents, and collectively form a helping behaviors scale. Using student samples and customers of a non-profit organization, we demonstrate a consistent scale structure, reliability, and nomological and external validity. We present two variations of the scale, one for for-profit companies and one for non-profit organizations. This scale is intended to be used as a dependent behavioral measure to enable researchers to capture multiple customer helping behaviors.

Researchers have operationalized communal and exchange relationship perceptions as either mutually exclusive categories or opposite ends of a continuum. This research conceptualizes these relationships as distinct constructs that should be measured separately. We develop multi-item measures of communal and exchange relationship perceptions and find that they are actually positively correlated. We also examine the way communal and exchange relationship perceptions combine to influence intrinsic, extrinsic, and social motivations to donate, a category stipulated in economics, but not in psychology. We find that both relationship perceptions influence consumer attitudes toward donating through a mix of intrinsic, extrinsic, and social motivations.

A recent trend among universities shifts from traditional MBA programs to specialized MBA offerings. Specialized programs are believed to cultivate stronger relationships with students, which lead to stronger alumni relationships and increased donations. This research tests this empirically by examining relationship perceptions and donation behavior among alumni of both traditional and specialized MBA programs from a university. The findings suggest that graduates of specialized programs are more likely to perceive relationships with their MBA programs than their traditional program counterparts. These graduates are also more likely to donate to their universities and to direct their donations toward their specialized MBA programs.

Prior research has assumed that touch has a persuasive effect only if it provides attribute or structural information about a product. Under this view, the role of touch as a persuasive tool is limited. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the persuasive influence of touch as an affective tool in the absence of useful product-related information. The authors find that for people who are motivated to touch because it is fun or interesting, a communication that incorporates touch leads to increased affective response and increased persuasion, particularly when the touch provides neutral or positive sensory feedback. People who are not motivated to touch for fun will also be persuaded by a communication that incorporates touch when they are able to make sense of how the touch is related to the message. The authors explore the effectiveness of different types of touch in generating an affective response, and they replicate the effects on attitudes and behavior in a real-world setting. This research suggests that the marketing implications of touch are more substantial than previously believed. The authors present research implications for direct marketing, product packaging, point-of-purchase displays, and print advertising.