Psychology Facts

▼ Physical Touch ▼

》No matter how much one may disagree, humans were designed as social creatures. Not being social/physically touched has significant negative consequences.

》The human brain uses two different pathways to process the sense of touch, one is sensory and the other is emotional.

The sensory pathway provides the physical interpretation of touch – texture, location, pressure, vibration, etc.

The emotional pathway processes the psychological components of touch for our interpretation.

》Incredibly, human beings begin to develop a sense of touch just three weeks after conception. At eight weeks, the embryo begins to interpret touch and react to its stimulation.

》Hugging and other forms of nonsexual touching cause your brain to release oxytocin, known as the "bonding hormone." This stimulates the release of other feel-good hormones, such as dopamine and serotonin, while reducing stress hormones, such as cortisol and norepinephrine.

》We bond through physical touch. Skin is the largest organ in your body and sends good and bad touch sensations to your brain. When you engage in pleasant touch, like a hug, your brain releases a hormone called oxytocin. This makes you feel good and firms up emotional and social bonds while lowering anxiety and fear.

》When people lack love and touch in their lives this can result in bodily self-harm, such as in eating disorders or self-mutilation.

》Research also suggests a negative correlation between touch and the severity of borderline personality disorder symptoms (Field, 2010). This suggests that the effects of touch extend to our basic neural circuitry. Even our immune response seems to be somewhat governed by touch, with the finding that those who are deprived of human touch are more likely to suffer from immune system diseases.

》A study shows the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases as a young adult is higher with people who were often lonely during childhood and youth.

》If you don't get touch right after you're born, all kinds of terrible things happen, and not just cognitive and emotional. Your immune system doesn't develop properly, you digestive system tends to have a problem – there's a whole rack of health problems that can develop if you don't receive touch in early life

》Getting a daily hug for 8+ seconds can not only create positive emotions but boost your immune system as well.

》Studies have shown that oxytocin (chemical released when creating social or physical bonds) makes you feel more generous, more empathetic and nurturing, more collaborative, and more grateful — all of which help make you a good partner, parent, friend, and co-worker.

》A way to substitute/get the emotional benefits of being touched can be achieved through a massage, whether it's a professional or loved one.

》Across a number of studies, researchers have found that touching the person you are asking for a favour significantly increases the chance of them agreeing to your request.
As the favour asked becomes larger, touch plays a more important role. This is particularly so when you are asking help from someone of the same gender.

》In any communication, who initiates touch is a clear indicator of social status. It seems that all humans follow some unsaid rules, wherein, the person with higher status chooses whether touch becomes a part of the communication.

》It is commonly known that we can recognise another's emotion's from their facial expressions and from their voice. Studies conducted in the United States and in Spain suggest that we also recognise emotions like anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy with some efficacy through touch (even when we can't see the person who is touching us).