Who controls our posture controls our purchasing behavior. The literature states that an outstretched arm (elbow at 180°) facilitates the reaction to negative stimuli, while a bent arm (elbow at 90°) facilitates the response to positive stimuli. Zahary Estes of the Marketing Department of the Bocconi University e Mathias Streicher of the University of Innsbruck have devised three experiments to verify whether the two different postures can actually influence consumer behaviour.
In the first experiment, students were asked to push a modified shopping trolley, with sensors attached to the handle, towards a product display and to indicate their purchasing intentions. The group that had to push the cart with bent arms bought significantly more products.
A second experiment replicated an online shopping context. This time students were asked to shop online with the palm of one hand resting on the top surface of the table (extension) or the bottom surface (flexion). Again, those shopping with their arm bent made more purchases than those with their arm outstretched.
Furthermore, the scholars wanted to understand if arm extension always inhibits purchases and flexion facilitates them, or if the effect depends on the interaction between posture and direction of movement necessary for the purchase. In the third experiment, then, participants were asked to indicate their purchase intentions by placing products in a hypothetical shopping area. In one case the area was located beyond the product and the participants proceeded to purchase by moving their arm away from the body; in the other it was located between the product and the participants, who thus had to pull the products towards themselves. In the first case the effect of the posture was reversed: the extension facilitated the purchase.
"The experiments have clear relevance for distribution," says Estes, "because they show that cart design and body posture can influence consumer behavior."
