According to Gottlieb(1971), touch emerges as the earliest developed sense in human embryos, playing a crucial role in the early social development of mammals and contributing to their overall health during growth (Harlow and Zimmermann,1959). Touch is of the initial forms of communication between newborns and parents. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, prosody, gesture, and touch (Argyle 1975) of which touch is the primary modality for conveying intimate emotions. This underscores the significance of touch as a fundamental aspect of human interaction, essential for expressing and understanding emotional states.
Being emotionally and socially receptive to touch is so physiologically fundamental to us that C tactile afferents1 can be found on practically every inch of our skin, with the exception of our palms and soles. In her TEDxGöteborg talk, Wasling highlights that specific nerves in our bodies exhibit heightened sensitivity to mild touch, gentle movement, and temperatures around 32 degrees Celsius. Essentially, humans are programmed to be most responsive to a light caress from another person. Our skin houses a network of specialized nerve fibers that not only detect but also emotionally respond to the touch of others. This responsiveness plays a crucial role in reinforcing our relationships, connections with others, and even our sense of self by creating a tangible link between physical touch and emotional experiences.
The importance of touch became more clear during the pandemic. „Touch is something we associate with emotional closeness, and we associate the absence of it with emotional distance,“ says New York-based psychologist Guy Winch PhD. We may not realize it, but there were literally thousands of little moments of touch throughout the day in pre-pandemic existence.” According to Winch, it might be quite challenging for people who have been living without that connection for a long period. “There’s something that feels very distancing and cold about not having any kind of option for an embrace, and that can leave long lasting scars”. Hugs are a really significant and emotionally nourishing sort of touch, explains Winch. The warmth of a genuine hug not only symbolizes security and safety but also fosters a profound sense of connection, enveloping individuals in a comforting embrace that transcends words, cultivating an immediate bond built on trust and intimacy. Furthermore, the benefits of touch are not just emotional and social, but also physical; it can relieve pain and tension, as well as provide us with a general sense of well-being (Halson,2021). Physical gestures of warmth and care, including touch, play a crucial role in fostering human social bonds and promoting psychological well-being (Field, 2010). There is evidence suggesting that touch, emotional depth or relationship quality, and loneliness are interconnected. Loneliness is related to poor relationship quality, particularly within the core of the social network, and those relationships, deep emotional ties, seem to rely heavily on physical contact and tactile ways of displaying affection (Tejada et al., 2020).
According to Van Erp and colleagues (2015), we are on the verge of a second transition: adding social or affective touch to ICT systems (touch for social communication). They believe that modern communication technology do not allow people to convey their feelings through touch, and that as a result, they may lack a compelling experience of social presence.
Sources:
- Halton, M. (2021, March 22). Humans are made to be touched – so what happens when we aren’t? ideas.ted.com. https://ideas.ted.com/we-are-made-to-be-touched-so-what-happens-when-we-arent/
- Field, T. (2010). Touch for socioemotional and physical well-being: A review. Developmental Review, 30(4), 367–383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2011.01.001.
- Heatley Tejada, A., Dunbar, R.I.M. & Montero, M. Physical Contact and Loneliness: Being Touched Reduces Perceptions of Loneliness. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology 6, 292–306 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-020-00138-0
- Gottlieb, G. 1971. Ontogenesis of sensory function in birds and mammals. In The Biopsychology of Development, Edited by E. Tobach, L.R. Aronson, and E. Shaw, 67–128. New York, NY: Academic Press.
- Harlow, H.F., and Zimmermann, R.R. 1959. Affectional responses in the infant monkey; orphaned baby monkeys develop a strong and persistent attachment to inanimate surrogate mothers. Science 130: 421–32. doi:10.1126/science.130.3373.421
- Argyle, M. 1975. Bodily Communication. 2nd ed. London, UK: Methuen.
- van Erp, J. B. F., & Toet, A. (2015, May 8). Social touch in human–computer interaction. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdigh.2015.00002/full#B4
- C tactile afferents are nerve receptors in mammalian skin that generally respond to nonpainful stimulation such as light touch ↩︎
