Fashion Consumer Groups, Gender, and Need for Touch

Within the context of consumer motivation theory, the purpose of this research was to investigate how fashion consumer groups and gender are related to need for touch. Differences between individuals high and low in need for touch are consistent with differences between fashion change agents and fashion followers. Participants (101 females; 70 males) from 54 different majors completed demographic information, the Need For Touch (NFT) scale, and the Measure of Fashion Innovativeness and Opinion Leadership. Fashion change agents and females had a greater NFT—total, autotelic and instrumental—than fashion followers and males. Fashion change agents and females scored equally high on autotelic and instrumental dimensions of NFT but fashion followers and males scored higher on the instrumental than the autotelic dimension. Using a diverse sample that included male and female college students from a variety of majors countered limitations of earlier research and provided new insights into the role of need for touch in consumer behavior.

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