The effect of color lightness on anticipated product comfort: The role of the lightness-softness cross-modal correspondence

The goal of this work is to investigate the influence of the color lightness-softness correspondence on a key product attribute: anticipated comfort. Across six studies, our results confirm that color lightness and product softness share a correspondence that is experienced across color hues and products. This correspondence leads to higher purchase intentions for products for which softness is desirable, and anticipated comfort mediates this effect. Further, haptic transference from adjacent objects, haptic priming through imagined touch, and haptic information relevance moderate the effects, and the intensity of effects declines once actual touch is possible, but the effects remain significant. We also rule out multiple alternative explanations (e.g., processing fluency, anticipated weight, arousal, product category color lightness expectations, and foreground-background contrast).