Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Appliquées à la Gestion

In most retail environments, customers can handle products. However, the downside of this freedom to touch products is product contamination. The objectives of this paper are threefold: 1) to examine the effects of contamination cues (tangible vs. intangible) on consumer responses; 2) to show the mediating role of contamination, disgust and mental imagery; and 3) to assess the robustness of the results on three product categories for different levels of contact intimacy. Three experimental laboratory studies on different product categories (a book (n=95), t-shirt (n=118), and apple (n=102)) showed that tangible contamination cues decreased product evaluation and purchase intentions more than intangible contamination cues did. Moreover, contamination, disgust and mental imagery mediated the effects of contamination cues on product evaluation and purchase intention. The findings provide theoretical and practical insights to help researchers and retailers understand the effect of tangible contamination cues on consumer responses.