Subtle Contact Nuances in the Delivery of Human-to-Human Touch Distinguish Emotional Sentiment

TL;DR

This study explores how subtle variations in skin-to-skin contact convey emotional messages and influence recognition and emotional ratings, highlighting the importance of contact nuances in human touch communication.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of contact attributes like velocity and depth in human touch, linking subtle differences to emotional recognition and ratings.

Findings

Touch attributes vary significantly with message type

Contact nuances influence emotional recognition and ratings

Arousal and valence correlate with specific contact features

Abstract

We routinely communicate distinct social and emotional sentiments through nuanced touch. For example, we might gently hold another's arm to offer a sense of calm, yet intensively hold another's arm to express excitement or anxiety. As this example indicates, distinct sentiments may be shaped by the subtlety in one's touch delivery. This work investigates how slight distinctions in skin-to-skin contact influence both the recognition of cued emotional messages (e.g., anger, sympathy) and the rating of emotional content (i.e., arousal, valence). By self-selecting preferred gestures (e.g., holding, stroking), touchers convey distinct messages by touching the receiver's forearm. Skin-to-skin contact attributes (e.g., velocity, depth, area) are optically tracked in high resolution. Contact is then examined within gesture, between messages. The results indicate touchers subtly, but significantly, vary contact attributes of a gesture to communicate distinct messages, which are recognizable by receivers. This tuning also correlates with receivers' arousal and valence. For instance, arousal increases with velocity for stroking, and depth for holding. Moreover, as shown here with human-to-human touch, valence is tied with velocity, which is the same trend as reported with brushes. The findings indicate that subtle nuance in skin-to-skin contact is important in conveying social messages and inducing emotions.