Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak

Psychometric evaluation of the Social Touch Questionnaire in Chinese adolescents

Social touch promotes psychological well-being through inducing positive effects on social affiliation and stress alleviation, especially in adolescence. However, there is a scarcity of instruments available for evaluating adolescents' attitude toward social touch in China. The present study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of the Social Touch Questionnaire (STQ) in Chinese adolescents. A total of 2839 high school students were enrolled, ranging in age from 11 to 19 years. The dimensions of the scale were conducted by exploratory factor analysis, and validated by confirmatory factor analysis. A three-factor model showed the best fit and consisted of the following subgroups: liking of informal social touch, liking of general social touch, and dislike of social touch. Furthermore, positive associations were found between social touch and interaction anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and sleep quality. Short-term prediction of dislike of social touch in anxiety symptoms was determined, while no significant predictor of depressive symptoms was found. The STQ demonstrates reliability and validity as a self-report questionnaire designed to assess behaviors and attitudes toward social touch. It effectively adapts to the nuances of the Chinese context among adolescents.

Toward Designing Haptic Displays for Desired Touch Targets: A Study of User Expectation for Haptic Properties via Crowdsourcing

Things that people desire to touch in daily life are known to be limited to a number of specific targets (e.g., cats). The utilization of haptic displays to provide the experience of touching such desired targets is expected to enhance people's quality of life. However, it is currently unclear which haptic properties (e.g., hardness and weight) of desired targets should be rendered with haptic displays, and how they should be rendered. To address these issues, we conducted an experiment with 600 Japanese participants via crowdsourcing. Among the 600 participants, we identified potential users of haptic displays and analyzed their responses for each target. For each desired target, we identified the haptic properties in relation to which a "need for consistency" was felt by potential users between their expectations and actual impressions during touching. We also identified the haptic properties in relation to which a "biased impression" was held by potential users for each target. For example, potential users responded that cats were soft and that the actual impression of softness during touching needed to be consistent with their impression. Our results provide insights into the design of haptic displays for realizing desired touch experiences.