Appearances can be deceiving: The portayal of weight and embodied meaning portrayal in product design

First impressions often arise from visual perceptions of product appearance, later to be followed by multisensory impressions involving touch and haptic sensations. These subsequent sensations may sometimes reinforce impressions generated by product appearance, but lead to disappointment when expectations are not met. In this paper, the relationship between weight, product evaluation, and consumer personality is tested. Based on the embodied cognition framework, it is argued that a potential pitfall of downsizing consumer electronics consists in accompanied weight reductions, inspiring perceptions of products as cheap and flimsy. In order to substantiate this claim, in study 1, a vision-only study was conducted, clearly demonstrating that people prefer compact, slender product variants over more voluminous versions. In study 2, actual dummy phones were used and product weight was manipulated independently from product appearance. Results show that lightweight variants may reduce value perceptions and product appeal, but that this effect varies with consumer personality.