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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: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [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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Shamloo SE, Carnaghi A, Piccoli V, Grassi M, Bianchi M. Imagined Intergroup Physical Contact Improves Attitudes Toward Immigrants. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1685. [PMID: 30279670 PMCID: PMC6153311 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2017] [Accepted: 08/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In this set of research, we investigated the effects of intergroup physical contact on intergroup attitudes by relying on indirect contact strategies, namely the imagined contact paradigm. We implemented the imagined contact paradigm by leading participants to shape the mental imagery upon pictorial information. Specifically, in Study 1 participants saw a picture of a white hand touching a black hand [i.e., intergroup physical contact condition (InterPC)] or a picture of an outdoor scene (i.e., control condition), and were asked to imagine being either the toucher or in the outdoor scene, respectively. Results demonstrated that InterPC compared to control condition reduced intergroup bias. In Study 2 we compared the InterPC condition to a condition in which participants saw a white hand touching another white hand [i.e., intragroup physical contact (IntraPC)], and imagined to be the toucher. Again, we found that participants in the InterPC condition showed reduced intergroup bias compared to the IntraPC. Study 3 replicated results of Studies 1 and 2 by using an implicit measure of prejudice. Also, Study 3 further showed that asking participants to merely look at the picture of a white hand touching a black hand, without imagining being the toucher was not effective in reducing implicit prejudice. Results were discussed with respect to the literature on physical contact and prejudice reduction processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soraya E Shamloo
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Andrea Carnaghi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | | | - Michele Grassi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Mauro Bianchi
- HEI-Lab, University Lusófona/ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute, Lisbon, Portugal
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Shamloo SE, Carnaghi A, Fantoni C. Investigating the relationship between intergroup physical contact and attitudes towards foreigners: the mediating role of quality of intergroup contact. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5680. [PMID: 30280046 PMCID: PMC6164546 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2018] [Accepted: 08/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research has shown that a brief, casual touch administered by an outgroup member reduces prejudice towards the group to which the toucher belongs. In this study, we take the research on physical contact and prejudice a step further by addressing the relation between individuals' amount of Experienced Intergroup Physical Contact (EIPC), across distinct contexts and involving different body parts, and attitudes towards foreign people. Specifically, we hypothesized that the amount of EIPC would be positively associated with both quantity and quality of intergroup contact, but that only quality would mediate the relationship between the amount of EIPC and outgroup attitudes, quality being more directly linked to the evaluative component of outgroup attitudes. To attain this aim, we asked participants to self-report the amount of EIPC, the quantity and quality of their intergroup contact and their attitudes towards foreign people. Consistent with our hypothesis: (1) as EIPC increased, positive attitudes towards foreign people increased; (2) higher levels of EIPC were associated with better quality and higher quantity of intergroup contact; (3) only quality of intergroup contact mediated the relationship between the amount of EIPC and attitudes towards foreign people. Results were discussed in relation to research on intergroup contact and physical contact.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Andrea Carnaghi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Carlo Fantoni
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
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Shin JE, Suh EM, Li NP, Eo K, Chong SC, Tsai MH. Darling, Get Closer to Me: Spatial Proximity Amplifies Interpersonal Liking. PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN 2018; 45:300-309. [DOI: 10.1177/0146167218784903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Does close distance increase liking for a social object? In a preliminary sociogram task, an association between proximity and intimacy was found in drawings of self and others. In three experimental studies, male participants consistently preferred female targets who were (actually or appeared to be) close than far from them. Distance was manipulated through various means—sitting distance (Study 2), presenting two facial images separately to each eye by a stereoscopic device (Study 3), or a video clip (Study 4). This effect was stronger among those with deprived social needs and occurred in part because close (vs. far) targets seemed psychologically more accessible to the perceiver. Our findings offer rare experimental evidence for the empirically challenged propinquity effect and provide new insights on how distance shapes inner experience.
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Intergroup Emotions Theory: Production, Regulation, and Modification of Group-Based Emotions. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.aesp.2018.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Johnston BM, Glasford DE. Intergroup contact and helping: How quality contact and empathy shape outgroup helping. GROUP PROCESSES & INTERGROUP RELATIONS 2017. [DOI: 10.1177/1368430217711770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Do previous intergroup contact experiences predispose a person to be more inclined to help outgroup members? The present work explores whether the quality of one’s contact experiences with an outgroup is associated with outgroup helping. Across two studies, we examine the relation between intergroup contact (quantity and quality of contact), empathy (Study 1 and Study 2), anxiety (Study 2), and helping intentions across a variety of dimensions and behaviors (Study 1 and Study 2), as well as level of commitment to helping outgroup members (Study 2). Across both studies, quality, more than quantity, contact was associated with increases in outgroup helping intentions, which was explained (i.e., mediated) by empathy. In addition, quality contact was also associated with increased commitment to help an outgroup, which was also explained by empathy. Implications for intergroup helping and emotions are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Demis E. Glasford
- The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, USA
- John Jay College, The City University of New York, USA
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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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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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Data from Paper ‘Embodied Terror Management: Interpersonal Touch Alleviates Existential Concerns among Individuals with Low Self-esteem’. JOURNAL OF OPEN PSYCHOLOGY DATA 2015. [DOI: 10.5334/jopd.ah] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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