Flavia Russo is a behavioural analyst at Canvas8. After gaining her MSc in international development from KCL, she worked as a translator and researcher in the non-profit and political risk sectors. There, she gained experience conducting qualitative and ethnographic research, from which her passion for analysing cultural and behavioural trends develops. When not working, Flavia loves spending time with her many cats and dogs, travelling to exotic locations, or playing tennis.


Amid technologically-driven existence, people are anchoring themselves in their bodies, using physicality as both a compass and a revolt.

Primal Yearning

People have higher expectations of care and understanding from interactions with brands, social systems, and individuals.They want to be sure someone will hold their hand in the face of hardship.

Everyday Empathy

At the end of November 2025, a team of researchers at Northwestern University unveiled 

, a fingertip-worn haptic device that lets wearers feel the textures of the digital world, closing a long-standing gap in making the digital world 

, the ancient Chinese practice of placing tiny pressure beads on specific points of the ear to ease anxiety, improve sleep and regulate stress to tackle burnout, is rising exponentially, driven by creator content and a generation tuning to touch-based, body-first ritual.

These moments expose tension between digital overwhelm and the desire to 

more. AI-generated content, seamless interfaces and digital abundance haven’t satisfied people. In America, for example, they’ve done the opposite: 62% report recurring digital burnout. 

Pitch

 Now, people are searching for meaning and connection, and sometimes that means introducing friction or tactility into digital life. In Japan, we see it in the viral 

, an interactive robot bag charm that responds to sound and movement, for wordless emotional reassurance. In the US, there’s a rise in 

, where tactile satisfaction adds joy and relief to a full beat. The 

 itself is built around haptic intimacy devices. Touch, it turns out, is what people reach for when everything else feels hollow.

Brands are responding to the desire for tactility. It’s in 

’s physical keyword and social-app limits, tackling doomscrolling and brain rot; the 

 replacing beauty counters with immersive sensory spaces that blend face-to-face service with interactive digital activations. The desire to feel present, to 

, offers a type of sensory engagement that offers gentle 

. Has texture become a form of payoff against the digitally abstract? Will Hampton, PhD, has spent years studying precisely this: What happens inside us when our devices reach out and touch us back? His 

Haptic Rewards: How Mobile Vibrations Shape Reward Response and Consumer Choice

 reveals that mobile vibrations trigger a reward response unlike any other form of digital feedback, with measurable effects on positive shopping behaviours. 

Journal of Consumer Research

Terms in bold are explained in the Decode the Jargon section below.

Why is this topic important to understand?

Looking at the existing research, there's quite a lot on the different types of rewards that exist, whether that's food rewards, which are considered 

such as money. I became interested in a type of reward in the context of mobile devices that I felt hadn't really been fully examined: 

The research that did exist mostly came from human-computer interaction, looking at how a device conveys vibration to you. It wasn't necessarily in the context of rewards; it was more about feedback or notifications, like haptic feedback when your vehicle hits a wall in a video game.

At the same time, from a personal standpoint, I noticed that more and more vibrational feedback was coming from my phone. I noticed that on certain shopping apps such as Amazon, Asos, and Zara, a vibration is added when adding something to the cart. I became really interested in better understanding how we perceive these different vibrations and whether the type of vibration matters, because there are various parameters you can vary. I focused a lot on duration, but, of course, there are also factors such as intensity and others.

Those two threads really spurred me to look at this in a more systematic, behaviorally rigorous way, and that led to a series of studies where we looked at the effect these vibrations have on people's decision-making across different contexts.

The first question was: What is the relationship between vibration duration and a range of metrics? This includes rewardingness, arousal, stimulation, how alerting the vibrations were and how aversive or unpleasant they were.

We looked at what these response curves would look like: Would they be linear? Does a longer vibration get more and more rewarding? Or is it an

 where it peaks at some point? In the end, we found that an inverted U curve where vibrations are less rewarding when very short but also less rewarding when very long.

Once we discovered that there was a particular vibration – around 400 milliseconds – that was most rewarding, the question became: Is this actually influencing behaviour? People were self-reporting on a scale of 1 to 7 how rewarding a vibration felt, but that's not the same thing as actually shifting behaviour in real life.

So we set out to test whether these rewarding vibrations might shift behaviour. First, in a controlled psychological experiment and then in a more ecological shopping context both in a controlled setting and in a field experiment with a large shopping company in Switzerland.

The last question was: Why is this having an effect? We ran a series of studies using mediation analysis to statistically assess the drivers of the effect.

1. People respond to vibrations of different lengths.

 The pilot study was really interesting in terms of the response curves. With something like stimulation, it just went up linearly: the longer the duration, the more people say it's stimulating. But with reward, it actually made an inverted U. There was a peak where it's most rewarding, and on either side – if it was too long or too short – people don't find it rewarding.

2. Rewarding vibrations can increase spending behaviour.

 The second finding was that these rewarding vibrations, when used in context, produced significant increases in the number of items people added and in the total amount they spent. This applies both to the generic sense of adding items to abstract boxes and to a shopping cart. 

That was very robust across many studies, so it’s important for practitioners to consider that this increase in spending underscores the importance of ethical design and transparent communication. Balancing short-term revenue goals with long-term user welfare is essential to maintaining user trust and protecting user agency.

3. The effects are driven by how rewarding the task feels.

 In terms of the mechanism, we tested around eight different hypotheses. One possibility was that it was simply for Confirmation, people are more sure they've added something. But ultimately, what we evidenced was that it was how rewarding the task itself felt that was driving the overall effect. 

When you add the vibration to the cart, people report that the shopping experience itself is actually more rewarding, and that leads them to add more items and spend more money. It was also interesting to see this replicate in a real-world sample, because there are plenty of cases where effects observed in a controlled lab environment don't necessarily map onto the real-world experience.

Vibrations themselves have become associated with positive experiences.

We found that the vibration feels rewarding in the first place, likely due to a form of

. Phone vibrations are triggered by many things besides shopping apps, and the most common are text messages or social notifications. Our theory is that at some point, the vibration became associated with something more intrinsically rewarding, like a text message from a loved one or a social media notification. 

 of that experience onto the vibration itself. In a 

 sense: you ring the bell, and the dog salivates even without the steak. That's the basic principle we believe is at work here.

These findings raise important ethical considerations for practitioners. This obviously raises ethical implications. For instance, for practitioners, the first implication is to approach with caution and make sure what you're doing feels ethical. 

My advice is to establish an internal ethical review board before deploying any haptic reward system to ensure it aligns with user welfare and company values. The second is to think carefully about which vibration you're pairing with which action. The studies focused on rewarding vibrations, but some vibrations were also considered aversive and could help deter maladaptive behaviour. If you want to curb an activity that's not good for users, you could pair it with an 

. It's important to get the pairing right, because using the wrong vibration could nudge people in the opposite direction to what you intended.

4. The effects are not the same for everyone.

 One last thing worth noting is that while these findings describe generalised effects across the population, there are group differences. The two biggest factors predicting how responsive people were to vibrations were impulsivity and age.

 tended to find vibrations more rewarding in general, and particularly Rewarding vibrations even more so, which is an important ethical caveat when dealing with more impulsive populations. Practitioners should exercise caution when using rewarding vibrations to ensure they do not unfairly influence vulnerable groups, such as younger or highly impulsive people, as this may raise significant ethical concerns.

We also observed a strong relationship with age: younger people were more responsive to rewards than older people. It's something for brands to consider when designing good user experiences. Finally, for anyone who would like to avoid the influence vibrations may be having on them, turning vibrations off in the phone settings is quite straightforward.

Use haptics to make positive actions stick

People are tired of effortless, frictionless consumption and are seeking greater fulfilment rather than another shortcut or hack – 86% of Gen Z and Gen Y globally say purpose is central to wellbeing. 

Deloitte Global

At the same time, some are fatigued by hollow loyalty schemes, with over 35% of Americans planning to cancel loyalty memberships. 

 By shifting reward design from transactional consumption to meaningful habit-building, haptic rewards offer a two-fold opportunity – reinforcing positive routines while helping manage impulsive behaviour. When tasks feel more rewarding, people are more likely to repeat them, suggesting that tactile feedback can serve as a microsignal that effort has paid off. There is room for brands to build tactile reward loops, positioning themselves as allies in behaviour change rather than impulse triggers. 

 wearables use patterned SmartVibes vibrations designed to support states such as calm, focus, sleep, and stress reduction, integrating tactile feedback into wellness routines. Meanwhile, 

 introduces haptic friction checkpoints to slow impulsive actions instead of simply removing barriers.

Add sensory depth to digital interactions

Hyperconnectivity is making 81% of Gen Z wish they could disconnect from digital devices more easily. 

Quad

 At the same time, their desire for all things touchable is rising, signalling a growing appetite for sensory richness. Haptic feedback taps directly into this tension – digital in delivery, but bodily in experience – adding texture to interactions that would otherwise remain purely visual or cognitive. 

 pairs a handheld device with guided breathing and biofeedback, where haptics anchor attention during meditation and help users stay engaged in the moment. 

 similarly integrates spatial audio and haptic feedback to create multisensory experiences supporting creativity, focus, movement and guided relaxation. For neurodivergent users, haptic feedback patterns sync with breath cycles. Meanwhile, the Woojer Mat converts sound into full-body tactile feedback across games, music and films, extending haptics beyond UI cues into immersive sensory environments. 

The Verge

This responds to the 82% of 18–45s from the US, the UK, Australia, India and Canada who say their lives would benefit from more meaningful connections, 

LG Newsroom

 enabling people to share multisensory experiences with others in virtual space.

Turn touch into a more inclusive interface

For people with visual or auditory impairments, haptic cues can carry meaning that screens and sound cannot, so tactility becomes about access rather than just interaction. 75% of Americans believe it is important for brands to create accessible digital experiences for people with disabilities. 

IPSOS

Accessibility is also increasingly tied to how well brands respond to individual needs: 69% of customers say they are more likely to purchase from brands that personalise experiences, while organisations with higher personalisation maturity are more likely to report improved customer loyalty and increased purchase frequency. 

Deloitte Digital

Responding to these needs, Apple’s Music Haptics allows songs to be experienced as tactile patterns through the Taptic Engine, translating rhythm and texture into taps and refined vibrations synced to audio. 

Apple Newsroom

 takes this further with the ALEYE haptic wristband and smart glasses, translating nonverbal social signals, like body language or facial expressions, into vibration patterns to support social interaction for neurodivergent individuals and those who are blind. Designing tactile meaning into content from the start helps brands create experiences that are easier to navigate, more emotionally resonant and ultimately more rewarding for a wider range of users.

 – A statistical pattern showing where performance or enjoyment rises, peaks, then falls. In this study, vibrations around approximately 400 milliseconds felt most rewarding, while shorter or longer ones felt less satisfying.

 – Rewards the brain is biologically wired to enjoy because they satisfy survival needs, such as food, warmth or sleep.

 – Rewards that gain their value through learning rather than biology, such as money, points or notifications, which can lead to something desirable.

 – A type of feedback where touch itself becomes the reward

 – Specific vibration patterns that feel good or satisfying to users. They can make small actions, such as adding something to a cart, feel more rewarding

– In behavioural psychology, this refers to repeated pairings that teach the brain that one signal predicts another. If phone vibrations often accompany messages or social notifications, the vibrations themselves can start to trigger a reward response

– The mental link formed after conditioning happens. Once the brain connects two experiences, one cue (like a vibration) can trigger the feelings or expectations of the other

 – How enjoyable or satisfying something feels. In the study, people rated how rewarding different vibrations felt to them

 – A classic psychology idea: when something neutral (such as the ringing of a bell or a buzz) gets paired with something rewarding, the brain starts reacting to the signal itself

– A vibration designed to feel unpleasant or annoying rather than satisfying, discouraging certain behaviours

– A personality tendency to act quickly without much pause or reflection. People higher in impulsivity were more responsive to rewarding vibrations in the study.

 of Americans report recurring digital burnout

 of Gen Z and Gen Y say purpose is central to wellbeing

 of Americans believe it is important for brands to create accessible digital experiences for people with disabilities

Haptic rewards can move beyond purchase nudges to reinforce habits people actually want, positioning brands as allies in self-improvement rather than impulse triggers

Gen Z's growing appetite for tactile experiences highlights a desire for sensory richness; haptic feedback satisfies this craving, offering digital delivery with a bodily feel

Brands that design tactile meaning into content from the start will make products more inclusive and emotionally resonant for all users

A PhD and Researcher at the University of St. Gallen and Google, Will Hampton specialises in UX research, behavioural economics, consumer psychology, human-computer interaction and the psychology of technology.

Global

Japan

United States

United Kingdom

Technology

Health and Fitness

Caught in the digital slop, people are burned out, craving meaning and fatigued by hollow rewards. To explore how touch and haptics are reshaping digital behaviour, Canvas8 spoke with Dr Will Hampton on how haptic feedback is changing the way people feel, engage and shop.

Analysis

Flavia Russo

Will Hampton

Related Macro Behaviours

Primal Yearning

Everyday Empathy