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Li H, Cao Y. The Dark Side of Interpersonal Touch: Physical Contact Leads to More Non-compliance With Preventive Measures to COVID-19. Psychol Rep 2023; 126:288-302. [PMID: 34872398 PMCID: PMC9841453 DOI: 10.1177/00332941211051985] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Following preventive measures is crucial for slowing the rate of COVID-19 spread. To date, most research has focused on the role of individual differences and personality in compliance with preventive measures to COVID-19. Building on findings that interpersonal touch instills a feeling of security, we propose that interpersonal touching behavior, an underexplored factor tied to social interaction, leads to more breaches of coronavirus restrictions by inducing security feelings. In a lab experiment (Experiment 1) and a field study (Experiment 2), we demonstrated that a female experimenter's fleeting and comforting pat on the shoulder made people less willing to abide by preventive measures in their self-report and actual behavior. Further, we excluded a potential alternative explanation that touch intervention by the experimenter presents the defiance of COVID-19 rules because the effect cannot be observed when the touch consists of a handshake rather than a comforting pat on the shoulder (Experiment 3). Finally, consistent with our theoretical perspective, the results revealed that sense of security mediated the effect of interpersonal touch on violation of instructions to follow coronavirus precautions. Taken together, interpersonal touch not only enhances trust and security, but also can push people away from health guidelines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heng Li
- Heng Li, College of International Studies, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Yu Cao
- School of Foreign Languages, 12445Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China
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2
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Humans adjust virtual comfort-distance towards an artificial agent depending on their sexual orientation and implicit prejudice against gay men. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2021.106948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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Saarinen A, Harjunen V, Jasinskaja-Lahti I, Jääskeläinen IP, Ravaja N. Social touch experience in different contexts: A review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 131:360-372. [PMID: 34537266 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Revised: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Social touch is increasingly utilized in a variety of psychological interventions, ranging from parent-child interventions to psychotherapeutic treatments. Less attention has been paid, however, to findings that exposure to social touch may not necessarily evoke positive or pleasant responses. Social touch can convey different emotions from love and gratitude to harassment and envy, and persons' preferences to touch and be touched do not necessarily match with each other. This review of altogether 99 original studies focuses on how contextual factors modify target person's behavioral and brain responses to social touch. The review shows that experience of social touch is strongly modified by a variety of toucher-related and situational factors: for example, toucher's facial expressions, physical attractiveness, relationship status, group membership, and touched person's psychological distress. At the neural level, contextual factors modify processing of social touch from early perceptual processing to reflective cognitive evaluation. Based on the review, we present implications for using social touch in behavioral and neuroscientific research designs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aino Saarinen
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Ville Harjunen
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti
- Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Iiro P Jääskeläinen
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland; International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation
| | - Niklas Ravaja
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
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Świdrak J, Pochwatko G, Insabato A. Does an agent’s touch always matter? Study on virtual Midas touch, masculinity, social status, and compliance in Polish men. JOURNAL ON MULTIMODAL USER INTERFACES 2021. [PMCID: PMC7778848 DOI: 10.1007/s12193-020-00351-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Traditional gender roles that define what is feminine and masculine also imply that men have higher social status than women. These stereotypes still influence how people interact with each other and with computers. Touch behaviour, essential in social interactions, is an interesting example of such social behaviours. The Midas touch effect describes a situation when a brief touch is used to influence one’s behaviour. Our study aimed to analyse the influence of virtual touch on compliance in men in a decision-making game called Ultimatum. In a series of three studies, we investigated whether social cues such as gender, stereotypical masculine/feminine appearance, and high/low social status modify compliance to offers from embodied agents. We built an immersive version of a repeated Ultimatum game in which a proposer offers how to split ten coins, and a responder accepts or rejects the offer. In study 1, men and women played with a female and a male agent. In study 2 and 3, men played with four agents each, differing in gender and levels of stereotypically seen masculinity and social status. There was no significant touch effect. Compliance was secured mostly by the value of the offer: the more generous the offer, the higher the compliance rate. We also found evidence for the perceived masculinity and social status influence. We also describe relationships between agents’ characteristics and the perception of their touch. The results are discussed in the context of social characteristics that are important in agent design and the effectiveness of social influence techniques in virtual reality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justyna Świdrak
- Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- Experimental Virtual Environments for Neuroscience and Technology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Andrea Insabato
- August Pi and Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
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Bertheaux C, Toscano R, Fortunier R, Roux JC, Charier D, Borg C. Emotion Measurements Through the Touch of Materials Surfaces. Front Hum Neurosci 2020; 13:455. [PMID: 32009917 PMCID: PMC6978750 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The emotion generated by the touch of materials is studied via a protocol based on blind assessment of various stimuli. The human emotional reaction felt toward a material is estimated through (i) explicit measurements, using a questionnaire collecting valence and intensity, and (ii) implicit measurements of the activity of the autonomic nervous system, via a pupillometry equipment. A panel of 25 university students (13 women, 12 men), aged from 18 to 27, tested blind twelve materials such as polymers, sandpapers, wood, velvet and fur, randomly ordered. After measuring the initial pupil diameter, taken as a reference, its variation during the tactile exploration was recorded. After each touch, the participants were asked to quantify the emotional value of the material. The results show that the pupil size variation follows the emotional intensity. It is significantly larger during the touch of materials considered as pleasant or unpleasant, than with the touch of neutral materials. Moreover, after a time period of about 0.5 s following the stimulus, the results reveal significant differences between pleasant and unpleasant stimuli, as well as differences according to gender, i.e., higher pupil dilatation of women than men. These results suggest (i) that the autonomic nervous system is initially sensitive to high arousing stimulation, and (ii) that, after a certain period, the pupil size changes according to the cognitive interest induced and the emotional regulation adopted. This research shows the interest of the emotional characterization of materials for product design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cyril Bertheaux
- Université de Lyon, ENISE, LTDS, UMR 5513 CNRS, Saint-Étienne, France
| | - Rosario Toscano
- Université de Lyon, ENISE, LTDS, UMR 5513 CNRS, Saint-Étienne, France
| | - Roland Fortunier
- Université de Lyon, ENISE, LTDS, UMR 5513 CNRS, Saint-Étienne, France
- ISAE-ENSMA, Chasseneuil-du-Poitou, France
| | | | - David Charier
- University Hospital of Saint-Étienne, SNA-EPI Laboratory, EA 4607, CHU, Université de Lyon, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, France
| | - Céline Borg
- University Hospital of Saint-Étienne, CMRR Neuropsychology, Department of Neurology, Université de Lyon, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, France
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Effects of touch on emotional face processing: A study of event-related potentials, facial EMG and cardiac activity. Biol Psychol 2017; 124:1-10. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2016] [Revised: 11/09/2016] [Accepted: 01/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Harjunen V, Spapé M, Ahmed I, Jacucci G, Ravaja N. Individual differences in affective touch: Behavioral inhibition and gender define how an interpersonal touch is perceived. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.11.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Ravaja N, Harjunen V, Ahmed I, Jacucci G, Spapé MM. Feeling Touched: Emotional Modulation of Somatosensory Potentials to Interpersonal Touch. Sci Rep 2017; 7:40504. [PMID: 28079157 PMCID: PMC5228183 DOI: 10.1038/srep40504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2016] [Accepted: 12/07/2016] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the previous studies have shown that an emotional context may alter touch processing, it is not clear how visual contextual information modulates the sensory signals, and at what levels does this modulation take place. Therefore, we investigated how a toucher’s emotional expressions (anger, happiness, fear, and sadness) modulate touchee’s somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) in different temporal ranges. Participants were presented with tactile stimulation appearing to originate from expressive characters in virtual reality. Touch processing was indexed using SEPs, and self-reports of touch experience were collected. Early potentials were found to be amplified after angry, happy and sad facial expressions, while late potentials were amplified after anger but attenuated after happiness. These effects were related to two stages of emotional modulation of tactile perception: anticipation and interpretation. The findings show that not only does touch affect emotion, but also emotional expressions affect touch perception. The affective modulation of touch was initially obtained as early as 25 ms after the touch onset suggesting that emotional context is integrated to the tactile sensation at a very early stage.
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Affiliation(s)
- N Ravaja
- Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.,Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,School of Business, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
| | - V Harjunen
- Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.,Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - I Ahmed
- Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - G Jacucci
- Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - M M Spapé
- Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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Anderson J, Koc Y. Exploring patterns of explicit and implicit anti-gay attitudes in Muslims and Atheists. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joel Anderson
- School of Psychology; University of Geneva; Switzerland
| | - Yasin Koc
- School of Psychology; University of Sussex; Brighton UK
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Camps J, Tuteleers C, Stouten J, Nelissen J. A situational touch: How touch affects people's decision behavior. SOCIAL INFLUENCE 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2012.719479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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