Abstract
In order to discuss the risk involved in purchasing products that cannot be tried when shopping online, this study investigated the difference in tactual sensations between fabrics and pictures, with a precondition that participants should not touch them. Sixteen participants were presented with 24 different textures (4 cm × 4 cm, 12 fabrics, 12 pictures) and were evaluated for tactual sensation. The result shows that two factors, “material sense” and “touch sense” could be extracted from the tactual sensation values. By interchanging the pictures and fabrics, much of the detailed information of the two factors was lost. The results also showed that fabric colors had psychological effects, which had a high possibility of giving a false impression to consumers. Therefore, if the psychological effect of colors giving a misleading impression is taken into considerations, it can be expected to mitigate the consumers' risk.
