POST-COMPLIANCE TOUCH - AN INCENTIVE FOR TASK-PERFORMANCE

That a brief touch increases compliance to a request is well documente d, but the effect of touch after compliance has already been obtained has not been investigated. The current experiment tested the effects o f post-compliance touch on subjects' willingness to respond to items o n a lengthy and difficult survey. A total of 104 women and 94 men, app roached at random in an American university student union, agreed to p articipate in a survey of social attitudes. Subjects rated their amoun t of agreement or disagreement with 150 statements about social issues such as discrimination, abortion, euthanasia, politics, and religion. The effects of touch were assessed in two ways: by the number of surv ey items completed and the nature of these responses. Results indicate d that both male and female subjects who were touched completed signif icantly more items than nontouched subjects, but there was no differen ce in the nature of their responses.