What is it about?
Affiliative touch carries affective meaning and affects the receiver. Although research demonstrates that receiving touch modulates the neural processing of emotions, its effects on evaluations of affective stimuli remain unexplored.
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Why is it important?
The current research examined the effects of affiliative touch on the evaluation of affective images across 3 studies and aimed to disentangle the effect of another person’s mere presence from the addition of affiliative touch. Overall, we found that receiving touch seems to attenuate negative evaluations in negative contexts and the presence of others amplifies positive evaluations in positive situations
Perspectives
In times of hate and polarization, it is good to remember some old tools we humans possess to promote social connectedness. One of these tools is human touch - a vital ingredient to social societies and affective exchanges
Paulo Boggio
Mackenzie Presbyterian University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Evaluations of affective stimuli modulated by another person’s presence and affiliative touch., Emotion, November 2019, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/emo0000700.
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