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Abstract

Touch is interpersonal, as it is shared between beings who have some mutual
relation to one another, whether an intimate long-term relationship or
a superficial one, and can be used to convey thoughts and feelings between
conspecifics. We asked, participants to evaluate their own and someone
else’s preference of “which body part they prefer to touch”, during observed
human social touch. Participants were shown pictures of an avatar, face-on,
which had an upper body to either side of it, comprised of the neck, arm
and palm. Avatars expressed preferences to one of the two bodies (left or
right) and one of the three body parts (neck, arm and palm), indicated
through combining positive/negative facial expressions, positive/negative
gestures, and head orientation. Participants were asked to infer their own
(1st-person mentalising) and the avatar’s (3rd-person mentalising) preference.
Furthermore, driven by the notion that humans are highly susceptible
to the happenings in their social environment, we introduced a third condition
where the avatar showed no preference towards either body/body part
(neutral condition), and asked participants to again evaluate their own preference.
This allowed us to examine how social touch interactions may influence
our subjective preferences. Overall, participants were faster in the
neutral condition, than in the 1st-person mentalising and 3rd-person mentalising
conditions. Although, participants’ preference was centred on the
palm during the neutral condition, this was extended to include the arm and
neck during 1st-person mentalising condition, suggesting that the avatar’s
interaction with a specific body part influenced participants’ preference. In
addition, participants were highly accurate in inferring the avatar’s ‘preference’,
and showed that they were inclined to respond faster to positive facial
expressions and gestures than negative, implying that they may share the touch recipient’s experience.