The communication of emotion via touch.

Full Abstract

The study of emotional communication has focused predominantly on the facial and vocal channels but has ignored the tactile channel. Participants in the current study were allowed to touch an unacquainted partner on the whole body to communicate distinct emotions. Of interest was how accurately the person being touched decoded the intended emotions without seeing the tactile stimulation. The data indicated that anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy were decoded at greater than chance levels, as well as happiness and sadness, 2 emotions that have not been shown to be communicated by touch to date. Moreover, fine-grained coding documented specific touch behaviors associated with different emotions. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to the study of emotion-related communication. 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: Hertenstein, Matthew J (MJ); Holmes, Rachel (R); McCullough, Margaret (M); Keltner, Dacher (D);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN 46135, USA. mhertenstein(-atsign-)depauw.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Emotion (Washington, D.C.) (Emotion), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Aug; vol 9 (issue 4) : pp 566-73

Dates: Created 2009/08/05; Completed 2009/09/28;

PMID: 19653781, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/28/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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