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INSIDE
Just about anyone with a
modicum of determination can
successfully mount an attack
ADAM SMITH ON THE CYBERSIEGE OF ESTONIA

BEHAVIOR

The Ewww Factor. A new study explains why we think some

things are icky-and marketers are starting to take heed
BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK
ANDREA MORALES AND GAVAN 'FITZSIMONS can both
remember when and where their current
research interest began. It came during a talk
at the University of Pennsylvania a few years
ago: Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology,
took a cockroach that had been sterilized,
dipped it into a glass of orange juice, then
asked if anyone was willing to take a sip.
TIME June II, 2007
Nobody was. But if an involuntary
ewwwjustwentthrough your mind, as it al-
most certainly did, the experiment is still
working. Rozin specializes in the psycho-
logical study of disgust, and he was demon-
strating the universal concept of touch
transference. It's a fancy term for cooties. If
something repulsive touches something be-
nign, the latter, even if it's physically un-
changed, becomes "infected."
Fitzsimons and Morales, who teach mar-
keting at Duke and Arizona State University
respectively, suspected this phenomenon had
implications for the consumer
marketplace-and in an article in this month's
Journal of Marketing Research, they show that
it does. In a series of studies, the researchers
found not only that some products-trash
bags, diapers, kitty litter, tampons-evoke a
subconscious feeling of
45
disgust even before they're used for their
ultimate messy purposes, but they can also
transfer their general ickiness to anything
they come in contact with. "We were pretty
surprised at how strong the effect was," says
Fitzsimons. "This is probably the most robust
result in my career."
It's also part of a growing trend of ap-
plying science to supermarkets (see chart).
Analysts who study shopping habits have
Though it has less
cachet than the sexier
emotions of fear, anger
and love, disgust is
equally powerful
already made some surprising discoveries
about product placement. "Eye level," for
example, used to mean, not surprisingly, "at
the level of the eyes." But shoppers tend to
keep their eyes aimed at cart level much of
the time, making sure they aren't about to run
over another customer. And because
Americans read from left to right, shelf-
stockers tend to put name brands like, say,
Heinz, on the left side of the ketchup display,
and the lesser known, more profitable
in-house brand on the right.
This may be the first study, though, that
reveals an evolutionary basis to shopping
preferences. Low-threshold revulsion makes
sense, protecting our ancestors from eating
rotten or poisonous food or touching animals
that had died of infectious disease. The face
of disgust-with the nose wrinkled and the
eyes squinted as if against some pungent
smell, and the tongue often protruding as if
spitting something out-tells you a lot. "It was
probably," says Fitzsimons, "a pretty good
proxy for the germ theory of disease before
anyone knew germs existed."
The idea that negative qualities can be
passed by a touch has become hardwired,
says Fitzsimons. (That applies to good qual-
ities too, which is why touching a holy object
or person is considered a way of acquiring a
little holiness for oneself.) So he and Morales
set out to see whether toilet paper and other
products could psychologically contaminate
food in a shopping basket. They used real
shopping baskets, though they did not
conduct their tests in a real supermarket, and
told subjects that the study had to do only
with product preference.
Strong preferences were just what the
subjects exhibited. Any food that touched
something perceived to be disgusting be-
came immediately less desirable itself,
though all of the products were in their
original wrapping. The appeal of the food fell
even if the two products were merely close
together; an inch seemed to be the critical
distance. "It makes no sense if you think
about it," says Fitzsimons. More irrationally
still, the subjects were less com-
fortable with a transparent package than an
opaque one, as if it somehow had greater
power to leak contamination. Whatever the
severity of the taint, the result was
predictable.
''We'd take cookies out of the basket and
offer them to the subjects," says Fitzsimons,
"and we had some really tempting-looking
cookies." No takers. Moreover, he says,
"everything we did suggested that these
feelings were below the level of awareness.
If we told someone, 'You didn't take the
cookie because it touched the kitty litter: they
would say, 'That's ridiculous.'''
A product does not stay contaminated
forever. The aversion tends to fade after
about an hour, though that's not much use to
the grocery store, since shoppers don't
generally return a short while after leaving to
reconsider their purchases.
Unlike a study in, say, particle astro-
physics, this one has practical consequences.
"More and more stores organize products by
category:' says Morales, "so you have a baby
aisle, for example, with diapers and wipes
and baby food all together." Supermarkets
might want to rethink that arrangement. And
other retailers will be interested to hear about
Morales' next study, on the opposite of the
cooties effect. "It turns out that if male cus-
tomers see an attractive woman touching a
garment, like a T shirt, the men are more
likely to want it." •

Supermarket Science. Given tiny sales

margins,
BY JEREMY CAPLAN sitioning cial. Here's how it's done

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Shelving cheese Some products To capitalize They're not shelved next to condoms Even before the /
near wine can nudge have a lucrative on customers because diapers don't scream "sexy." But recent pet-food s?,re,
shoppers into rub-off effect. A loyal should they be positioned alongside baby supermarkets had
impulsively buying supermarket- to certain brands, food? Given that many consumers spend to be careful about
a bottle of strategy firm found supermarkets make just seven seconds at a particular display where to put kitty
Bordeaux. And that shoppers who sure that popular before selecting a product, some store litter, since its use
posti ng a n buy silver polish labels, such as planners want to encourage shoppers to carries a definite ick
attractive tend to spend more Heinz ketchup grab related baby products by stocking factor. Attractive,
salesperson with a than $200 a trip. So and Cheerios, are them all in the same area. Research also bright packaging may
small selection of even though it's a easy to spot and suggests that diapers in opaque pack- help, but positioning
samples-five is low-turnover positioned near aging may evoke less disgust than those in the pet section
often more effective product, shelving profitable store in a see-through bag. remains
than 50-seems to experts keep it brands.
46 a challenge.
boost buying. around.