Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83249
Title: Cross-cultural similarity in relationship-specific social touching
Authors: Suvilehto, Juulia T.
Nummenmaa, Lauri
Harada, Tokiko
Dunbar, Robin I. M.
Hari, Riitta
Turner, Robert
Sadato, Norihiro
Kitada, Ryo
Keywords: Cultural Difference
Social Touch
Social sciences::Communication
Issue Date: 2019
Source: Suvilehto, J. T., Nummenmaa, L., Harada, T., Dunbar, R. I. M., Hari, R., Turner, R., . . . Kitada, R. (2019). Cross-cultural similarity in relationship-specific social touching. Proceedings of the Royal Society B : Biological Sciences, 286(1901), 20190467-. doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.0467
Series/Report no.: Proceedings of the Royal Society B : Biological Sciences
Abstract: Many species use touching for reinforcing social structures, and particularly, non-human primates use social grooming for managing their social networks. However, it is still unclear how social touch contributes to the maintenance and reinforcement of human social networks. Human studies in Western cultures suggest that the body locations where touch is allowed are associated with the strength of the emotional bond between the person touched and the toucher. However, it is unknown to what extent this relationship is culturally universal and generalizes to non-Western cultures. Here, we compared relationship-specific, bodily touch allowance maps across one Western (N = 386, UK) and one East Asian (N = 255, Japan) country. In both cultures, the strength of the emotional bond was linearly associated with permissible touch area. However, Western participants experienced social touching as more pleasurable than Asian participants. These results indicate a similarity of emotional bonding via social touch between East Asian and Western cultures.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83249
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49749
ISSN: 0962-8452
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0467
Schools: School of Social Sciences 
Rights: © 2019 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Fulltext Permission: open
Fulltext Availability: With Fulltext
Appears in Collections:SSS Journal Articles

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