The power of a gentle touch to overcome psychological or emotional hardship is not to be underestimated. When we feel socially excluded or rejected, a slow and affectionate touch has a demonstrable affect on our psychological state to bring us back into a more positive condition of well-being. Through gentle touch, we can also enhance relations with others and increase social bonding.
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In days of old, the sphere of social interaction was limited to physical interactions with others. But in our modern times with digital and virtual communication, the ability to be affected by social human relations is amplified in some ways, both positive and negative. We also forget and are separated from the power of touch as a way to heal feelings of social exclusion.
A study published by Scientific Reports in 2017, shows that the power of a slow and gentle stroke can reduce feelings of being excluded after we are rejected in a social situation. The gentle stroke doesn't need to be done by someone we know to have the positive affect: any stranger can help soothe the painful experience of being rejected or ostracized.
A social exclusion experiment was conducted with 84 women, where they would play a ball-tossing game, and answer questions about feelings of belonging, self-esteem, meaningful existence and control. These are questions related to needs that are threatened by ostracism. After a 10 minute break, the other player they are ball-tossing with, stops throwing them balls after a few tosses. This creates a feeling of being excluded, and therefore rejected as well. The women were then blindfolded, and had their left forearms touched with a soft brush at a slow or fast speed. The same questionnaire was given.
Participants reported feeling less negative and less socially excluded when touched at a slow speed. The slow speed of touch is felt as gentle, whereas the fast speed is more neutral, lacking that gentleness and the positive physiological response. Despite the soft gentle touch, feelings of exclusion, rejection and ostracism were not completely eliminated.
How much can a gentle touch and stroking of the skin affect us positively at a psychological level? The recent findings indicate affective touch by gentle stroking of the skin is linked to the brain through a specially coded aspect of our physiological system. The specific neurophysiological mechanisms involved are not yet demonstrated. Modifying the experiment through skin-on-skin contact, the social context, and temperature variation, could indicate more or less effective methods of positive affect from touch. Other studies have shown that the presence of friends, teddy bears and even supportive text messages can buffer the negative effect of ostracism.
Humans as well as other mammals, being social animals, are recognized to have needs for closeness and attachment. Providing a social support system reduces the negative emotional responses to feeling socially excluded. We have all probably seen this demonstrated in our lives in various ways to some degree.
This experiment demonstrated this affect on our psychological states through something as simple as a slow gentle touch. Nothing needed to be said to the participants who experienced negative feeling, and no visual information was needed (since they were blindfolded). Touch can produce effects on alleviating physical pain in addition to psychological pain.
The role of touch is important to consider in mental and physical care conditions. A little touch can go a long way to help people feel included, and aid in the recovery of negative physical or psychological experiences.
- Have you experienced something similar, where a simple touch changed how you felt?
- Have you touched someone gently and seen how their negative state changed to be more positive?
- Or have you also felt or seen the opposite, where a gentle touch was unwelcome and produced more negative feelings?
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