Affective Interpersonal Touch in Close Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sorokowska, Agnieszka; Saluja, Supreet; Sorokowski, Piotr; Frąckowiak, Tomasz; Karwowski, Maciej; Aavik, Toivo; Akello, Grace; Alm, Charlotte; Amjad, Naumana; Anjum, Afifa; Asao, Kelly; Atama, Chiemezie S.; Atamtürk Duyar, Derya; Ayebare, Richard; Batres, Carlota; Bendixen, Mons; Bensafia, Aicha; Bizumic, Boris; Boussena, Mahmoud; Buss, David M.; Butovskaya, Marina; Can, Seda; Cantarero, Katarzyna; Carrier, Antonin; Cetinkaya, Hakan; Chabin, Dominika; Conroy-Beam, Daniel; Contreras-Graduño, Jorge; Varella, Marco Antonio Correa; Cueto, Rosa María; Czub, Marcin; Dronova, Daria; Dural, Seda; Duyar, Izzet; Ertugrul, Berna; Espinosa, Agustín; Esteves, Carla Sofia; Guemaz, Farida; Haľamová, Mária; Herak, Iskra; Hromatko, Ivana; Hui, Chin-Ming; Jaafar, Jas Laile; Jiang, Feng; Kafetsios, Konstantinos; Kavcic, Tina; Kennair, Leif Edward Ottesen; Kervyn, Nicolas O.; Khilji, Imran Ahmed; Köbis, Nils C.; Kostic, Aleksandra; Láng, András; Lennard, Georgina R.; León, Ernesto; Lindholm, Torun; Lopez, Giulia; Manesi, Zoi; Martinez, Rocio; McKerchar, Sarah L.; Meskó, Norbert; Misra, Girishwar; Monaghan, Conal; Mora, Emanuel C.; Moya-Garofano, Alba; Musil, Bojan; Natividade, Jean Carlos; Nizharadze, George; Oberzaucher, Elisabeth; Oleszkiewicz, Anna; Onyishi, Ike Ernest; Özener, Baris; Pagani, Ariela Francesca; Pakalniskiene, Vilmante; Parise, Miriam; Pazhoohi, Farid; Pejičić, Marija; Pisanski, Annette; Pisanski, Katarzyna; Plohl, Nejc; Popa, Camelia; Prokop, Pavol; Rizwan, Muhammad; Sainz, Mario; Salkičević, Svjetlana; Sargautyte, Ruta; Sarmany-Schuller, Ivan; Schmehl, Susanne; Shahid, Anam; Shaikh, Rizwana; Sharad, Shivantika; Siddiqui, Razi Sultan; Simonetti, Franco; Tadinac, Meri; Ugalde González, Karina; Uhryn, Olga; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Vega Araya, Luis Diego; Widarini, Dwi Ajeng; Yoo, Gyesook; Zadeh, Zainab Fotowwat; Zaťková, Marta; Zupančič, Maja; Croy, Ilona;
• Is Part Of: Personality & social psychology bulletin. Volume 47:Number 12(2021)
• Page Start: 1705
• Page End: 1721
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: touch behaviors -- affective touch -- interpersonal behaviors -- cross-cultural psychology; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167220988373
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-1672

Abstract

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14, 000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.