It鈥檚 an easy habit to fall into. While watching TV or folding laundry, it鈥檚 almost second nature for people to pick up their phone, browse a retail site and before they know it, they鈥檝e clicked 鈥減urchase鈥� multiple times. This became especially popular since the beginning of the pandemic when many were staying at home. Though online shopping is convenient, it can also be costly.鈥�鈥�   

鈥淧eople tend to overpay when they pay via mobile or online because it鈥檚 kind of like a painless payment. You don鈥檛 have to pay with cash,鈥� said鈥疍aniel Brannon, Ph.D., assistant professor of Marketing in the鈥疢onfort College of Business (MCB) at UNC.鈥�鈥�   

Brannon has been exploring theories surrounding online shopping and payment apps, specifically seeing if there is a way to help prevent people from dipping鈥痠nto their savings so quickly. It turns out there is.鈥�   

Brannon and colleague, Moe鈥疢anshad, Ph.D., assistant professor of Software Engineering and Computer Information Systems (CIS), found a way to reduce overspending online, even if just by a little, through a 3-D printed vibration motor controller attached to a phone.   

鈥淎ll mobile phones have vibrations that are used to deliver notifications to consumers, for example when you receive a like or comment on a social media post,鈥� said鈥疢anshad. 鈥淲e wanted to see if receiving a similar vibration notification when you are in the act of paying for something with your mobile device could affect how consumers feel about their spending on these devices.鈥濃��鈥� 

In traditional, in-person shopping, consumers experience the physical aspect of standing in line or taking a form of payment out of their wallet, which research shows can lead to a sense of loss. Online shopping removes that, which is why 
the pair looked for a different way to bring out that emotion.鈥�鈥�鈥�    

鈥淲e wanted to see whether high or low haptic vibration intensity was most likely to elicit a sort of pain of payment,鈥� Brannon said.鈥�鈥�    

Through the experiment, the faculty members discovered that haptic technology, which uses vibrations and motors to simulate the feeling of touch, may work.   

The first step was creating a device, which Manshad was able to do using a 3-D printer located in his office. He then developed a mobile app that connected to a microcontroller with a vibration motor and hooked that onto the back of a phone.鈥�鈥�    

鈥淥ne of the things we worked on is developing the device that basically gives us control of the haptic part of the phone. Traditionally, on older phones, you don鈥檛 have much control over the intensity of vibration, so we had to build a device,鈥� Manshad said.鈥�    

With the device ready, Brannon and Manshad sought out a sample of 160 UNC undergraduate students to participate in the experiment. In the basement of MCB, a shopping experience was set up where each student chose from a shelf of various potato chips, used a mobile payment app to scan the QR code and then pressed 鈥榩urchase鈥� in the app. Upon pressing the purchase button, the students received either low-intensity, high-intensity or no vibration feedback. They were then asked how much money they were willing to spend on a subsequent shopping trip.鈥�鈥�    

Those who experienced the lowest-intensity vibration said they would spend less.鈥�鈥�    

鈥淭here鈥檚 a theory in psychology that low-frequency stimuli like low-frequency sounds can cause a sense of threat or danger,鈥� Brannon said. 鈥淚f you think about a scary movie a lot of times it鈥檚 that low, eerie sense that people get. It gives a sinister feeling.鈥濃��鈥�    

Manshad says high frequency tends to have the opposite effect.鈥�鈥�   

鈥淗igh intensity is more associated with excitement or positivity to some extent,鈥� Manshad said. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e theorizing is that people who got the lower-intensity vibration tended to experience a bit more negative emotion, and subsequently they were less likely 
to spend.鈥�    

While the findings excite Brannon and Manshad because it could help people save money, they want to take similar, future experiments a step farther, developing a Multiexperience (MX) lab for students to explore more connections between marketing, software engineering, CIS, accounting and more.鈥�鈥�    

鈥淲e want to bring in marketing students to research and hold focus groups and have CIS鈥痵tudents learn about the business process behind the development,鈥� said鈥疢anshad.鈥�鈥�  

鈥淲ith the MX Lab, using it for teaching and getting research out, students won鈥檛 only be there for class but also to test technology,鈥� Brannon said.鈥�鈥�    

鈥淎t the end of the day, each student needs value from each class to put on their resume,鈥� Manshad said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e showing our students that we, as faculty, are up-to-date with industry standards. We know how to use the technology involved and we can teach them these tools so that they have experience when interviewing for a job.鈥濃��

Brannon and Manshad鈥檚 research鈥痠s鈥痯ublished in the聽Journal of Business Research鈥痠n the article entitled鈥�鈥淗aptic-payment: Exploring vibration feedback as a means of reducing overspending in mobile payment.鈥�