Altering Speed of Locomotion
研究发现，商店地板上的进度标记数量会影响顾客的行走速度：标记越少，顾客走得越快，且标记与目标的相关性和显著性会调节这一效应。
Abstract Even though 80% of a shopper’s time in the store is spent moving from place to place, little is known about managing the pace of in-store traffic flow. Based on the store atmospherics literature, this article introduces interventions to optimize the pace of locomotion. A series of lab and field experiments demonstrates that changes in flooring affect customers’ walking speed. The number, the nature, and the relative salience of progress markers along a walking path toward a physical location communicate goal progress and thus the motivation to reach a particular destination. Consistent with a goal gradient account, customers walk faster when fewer progress markers are placed along the walking path to the goal. The effect of the number of progress markers diminishes when the markers are unrelated to the goal and reverses when the markers are relatively more salient than the goal. This article contributes to the goal literature by showing how markers affect perceptions of goal progress (i.e., level vs. rate of progress) and provides concrete insights to speed up and slow down customers’ walking speed in a retail environment.