Touch has profound benefits for human beings. But over the last few decades, people have become increasingly cautious about socially touching others for a range of reasons.

No more hugs? Rawpixel.com/shutterstock 

Touch has profound benefits for human beings. But over the last few decades, people have become increasingly cautious about socially touching others for a range of reasons. With the novel coronavirus spreading, this is bound to get worse. The coronavirus could very well have long-term implications for how hands-on we are – reinforcing already existing perceptions that touch should be avoided.

Why is touch so important? It helps us share how we feel about others, enhancing our verbal communication. A touch on the arm when comforting someone, for example, is often what shows that we really care. People benefit from physical touch throughout their lifespan, and there is a large body of evidence showing that it has the ability to affect both short and long-term wellbeing. For babies, it is even crucial for healthy brain development.

The emotional impact of social touch is ingrained in our biology. There is evidence that it triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone that decreases responses to stress. In fact, touch has been shown to cushion stress levels in humans.

We know that a simple touch by a nurse prior to surgery can reduce stress levels in patients. It can also reduce feelings of social exclusion and even increase food intake among elderly people living in a nursing home. So given how essential social touch is to people’s wellbeing, it is important to ensure that it is a part of everyday life.

Decline in social touch

The last few decades has seen a decrease in social touch. Partly, this is down to the fact that we are living in a technology-focused, socially disconnected world, where people are more likely to communicate virtually rather than through meeting in person. This means that we are touching each other much less than we used to.

But the decline in touch is primarily due to a fear that it may result in an accusation of inappropriate touching. Such fear has been moulded by society as people are frequently hearing stories of inappropriate behaviour. People therefore rather resist touching others than risk having a social touch misinterpreted. The message is simple: avoid hugging a work colleague who is upset and don’t pat someone on the back for a job well done.

At the same time, the fear of accusations of child abuse has been disproportionate to the number of actual occurrences. This has seen professionals developing distorted thinking. Teachers often avoid being alone with children, and don’t touch pupils in a natural and affectionate way.

The impact of coronavirus

With the novel coronavirus, people have yet another reason to be fearful of touching others, as it means approaching people who potentially may be carriers. While we should remain careful with touching during this serious outbreak, we have to make an effort not to let it get out of control. After all, a lot of people suffer from high levels of anxiety about the virus, and touch is a way to reduce it.

It won’t last forever. eldar nurkovic/Shutterstock

The longer this goes on, the more likely that an association will be formed between social touch and a sense of negativity. People may eventually forget all about the virus, but still be wary of social touch without knowing why. This is because negative associations often create more readily available memories for people than positive associations.

So while it is not advisable to carry on touching people as usual during the outbreak, especially not people who are old or have underlying health conditions, physical contact with loved ones can still continue, as long as we take precautions.

More broadly, the key is to be aware that negative life events such as this epidemic could impact on social touch in the long run in an undesirable way. Bringing this to the forefront of our minds can counterbalance what may otherwise generate negative memories about touch.

Once the outbreak is over, one vital challenge will be to reset our thinking about touch, keeping in mind its importance. After all, a hug may be just what we need to move on from the traumatic experience of the coronavirus.

About the Author

Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, Reader in Consumer Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University

This article is excerpted from a longer article from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Recommended book:

Secrets of Great Marriages: Real Truth from Real Couples about Lasting Love
by Charlie Bloom and Linda Bloom.

The Blooms distill real-world wisdom from 27 extraordinary couples into positive actions any couple can take to achieve or regain not just a good marriage but a great one.

For more information or to order this book.

Some people who live alone may by now have gone months without touching or hugging another person. While avoiding close contact with others is one of the key measures to prevent virus spread, the irony is we probably need a hug more in 2020 than ever before. So how dangerous is a hug really in the time of COVID?

One of the fiercest and most hypocritical human emotions is envy. When the envy is conscious and sent deliberately, the harm is even more terrible, appearing as a sudden illness in the person's life, with no apparent cause.

We know having friends is generally good for your happiness and mental well-being. Likewise, keeping socially active and engaging in formal social activities like volunteering has been linked to better mental health.

Former Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia were on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Yet despite their obvious legal disagreements, the liberal Ginsburg once described herself and the conservative Scalia as “best buddies.”

Right now, in our country, and perhaps in other countries as well, people are having a challenging time in their lives. It could be easy for a person to feel lost in all of this ongoing challenge. But how can we feel found? 

Domestic violence disproportionately affects women and girls around the world. In the United States, one in four women and one in seven men experience domestic violence during their lifetime.

As the weather has warmed in my Midwestern town, my neighborhood is full of children on bicycles pretending to be riding through the Wild West.

I grew up in Buffalo, New York and, from the time I was just a little girl, my parents, without even knowing it, started training me to become an ally to people of color. I shall be forever grateful to them. My mother emphasized that all humans are created equal and that all, regardless of skin color, are children of God.

We are exposed to numerous viruses from our day-to-day interactions with other people all the time. However, our risk of being infected by a simple greeting usually isn’t in the forefront of our minds.

Your best friend tells you she’s scared of her partner. You notice bruises on your colleague’s arm.

Men seem more hesitant about both making friends and celebrating their friendships. On Feb. 13, women will celebrate Galentine’s Day, a holiday trumpeting the joys of female friendships.

Human beings are social animals—we all need some degree of interaction with other humans for basic survival as well as psychological health. Spending time with empathetic, optimistic, open-minded people and weeding out those who have the opposite qualities will boost your mood, elevate your motivation, and improve your health.

Humans are more connected to each other than ever, thanks to smartphones, the web and social media. At the same time, loneliness is a huge and growing social problem.

One question the ABC’s promotional material focused on was “Are you lonely?”

One of my favorite quotes is, "If you have room in your heart for one enemy, your heart is an unsafe place for a friend." I do not know who originally spoke or wrote that statement, but I do know it contains a volume of wisdom.

Friends encourage and support each other in difficult times and generally make a positive impact on each other's lives. However, they're also willing to confront and constructively . So let's take a look at how you can deal with conflict and with saying those things that your friend might not want to hear.

Have you ever felt like everyone else has so much more to be thankful for? Check your Facebook or Instagram feed: Your friends seem to dine at finer restaurants, take more exotic vacations and have more accomplished children. They even have cuter pets!

More than one in three young adults aged 18 to 25 reported problematic levels of loneliness, according to a new report from Swinburne University and VicHealth.

It seems obvious that your friends would agree they are your friends. But recent findings published in the journal PLOS ONE call this into question.

About eight years ago, I went to dinner with a dear friend I had known for more than 40 years. It would be the last time we would see each other and by the end of that evening I was deeply shaken.

When making food choices when we’re with friends, we tend to want to match characteristics that others can measure or rank, such as size or price, but feel free to go our own way on things like flavor or shape, a new study suggests.

Breakups happen to friends, too. Here’s how to find closure, while preserving your heart and dignity.

Depression is a common mental health problem that can affect people at many different stages in life. How bad it gets and how long it lasts can really vary. It’s often something that people find hard to talk about, as many people don’t really understand what it is.

To understand why people succeed or fail, look at their circle of friends. Like it or not, says economist Matthew Jackson, people’s fates are closely connected to their human networks.

People are meant to live in communities. It is our na­ture; it is in our genes and in our jeans. Being connected with other people is crucial to our happiness.

Do you feel lonely? If you do, you are not alone. While you may think it’s a personal mental health issue, the collective social impact is an epidemic.

Friendships made in school play a special part in young people’s development. They are more than just moral support, friends help them learn key social skills, and serve as a source of social support.

Relationships are quite different from the engaged-married-live-together-forever lockstep. The romantic friendship is a new feature in the relationship landscape of most conventional Americans, though not unknown in other cultures around the world.

Researchers have discovered a connection between Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram use and decreased well-being.

Your chances of forming online friendships depend mainly on the number of groups and organizations you join, not their types, according to a new analysis of six online social networks.

Social media sites can make us feel left out—and can actually inhibit intelligent thought, research shows. A new study takes a critical look not just at Facebook and other similar platforms, but at the peculiarities of the systems on which they operate.

Imagine that someone you care about is procrastinating in advance of a vital exam. If he fails the test, he will not be able to go to university, an eventuality of major consequence in his life. If positive encouragement doesn’t work, you might reverse strategy, making your friend feel so bad, so worried, so scared, that the only strategy left is that he starts studying like mad.

Good friendships seem worth celebrating. But for many of us, tensions can appear from time to time between being a good friend and doing “the right thing.”

In early November 2017, Brooks Fisher’s neighbor in Sonoma, California, pounded on his door at 2 a.m., rang the doorbell and shouted, “There’s a fire coming and you need to get out now! I can hear trees exploding!”

Strong sibling bonds can offset the negative effects of parental strife, according to a new study.

In 1906, the young Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung received a collection of essays from none other than the founder of psychoanalysis himself, Sigmund Freud.

Whether your relationships are as wonderful as you wish them to be or you feel that there is room for improvement, using metaphysical methods to manage and sustain them is as rewarding as is it empowering.

NPR reported on a survey about loneliness conducted by Cigna, a large health insurance company. Are Americans becoming lonelier?

It takes more than 200 hours before someone can be considered a close friend, according to a new study that explores how long it typically takes to move through the deepening stages of friendship.

When it comes to presenting yourself online – such as your profile pic for Facebook or even Tinder – which type of photo do you chose?

The nature and ethics of “fake news” has become a subject of widespread concern. But, for many of us, the issue is much more personal: What are we to do when a cranky uncle or an otherwise pleasant old friend persists in populating our news feeds with a stream of posts that can run deeply contrary to our own values?

Independence is glorified in North American culture as a symbol of strength. As a society, we value individual achievement and extol self-reliance.

New research suggests we can “pick up” good and bad moods from friends, but not depression. “We investigated whether there is evidence for the individual components of mood (such as appetite, tiredness, and sleep) spreading through US adolescent friendship networks..."

"The meek shall inherit the earth..." . Those of us raised in the Christian faith know this statement well. And for many of us, myself included, it was interpreted to mean that we should bite our tongue, hold our peace, and not rock the boat.

Among older adults, friendships are actually a stronger predictor of health and happiness than relationships with family members, research shows.

Avoiding Trump supporters only increases our already dangerous polarization. Here’s how to really listen and find compassion.

For a long time, friendships between gay men and straight men – what some now call “bromosexual” friendships – were uncommon.

Whether offering us consolation after the death of a loved one or commiseration when our team loses yet again, our social relationships are invaluable for helping us lead happier, less stressful lives.

In many ways, to encourage is to help the heart unfold. And each time we do so, another aspect of our true self unfolds. Very often, the art of encouragement is needed to counter some sort of fear...

While there is no cure for dementia or Alzheimer’s, studies suggest strong social ties can help ward off the diseases’ advance. The Momentia movement uses strong social ties to ward off the effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

In this article I will explore what toxic relationships are, explain how we can get out of them, and share an exercise to cut energy links with toxic people in our lives in order to regain peace.

It goes without saying that harming others does not a friendly community make. We can begin to refrain from doing harm while cultivating love and good relations. When we live with this value, we honor all with whom we...

Growing up I had a lot of trouble distancing myself from other people's problems. I had every aspect of the Savior Complex embedded in my cells. It was this natural-born Savior Complex which resulted in a lot of drama in my life.

For years, friendships between straight women and gay men have been a subject of pop culture fascination. Books, television shows and feature length films have all highlighted this unique relationship, noted for its closeness and depth.

In his first interview as Prime Minister with The Today Show on Monday, Malcolm Turnbull responded to questions about increased funding for women escaping family violence by declaring “real men don’t hit women”. 

Long before the invention of Facebook and Match.com, our ancestors grappled with how to improve their social lives, forge beneficial connections, and strengthen their reputations. Their insights will help us enhance our social lives, extend our online social networks, and lead to greater opportunities for success.

If you are struggling to learn something new and you have people around who are not only unhelpful but downright negative about what you're doing, then you need to really look at each and every one and decide if each is truly a friend...

We have ideals about being a good friend and, when we don’t measure up to those ideals, we judge ourselves negatively. How good a friend are you? Many would contemplate this question for a minute and then reply, “Not a very good one.” For many years I also...

You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends. So goes the saying. Ask yourself if that is true for you. Did you choose your friends, or did you allow them to choose you? It may be that in...

by Alan Cohen. I was surprised to receive a Facebook friend invitation from Eric Butterworth, a respected author and minister who introduced me to the new thought movement many years ago. The astounding element of Dr. Butterworth’s invitation is that he is dead. He passed away eight years ago. How he found his way onto Facebook is...

A while back, in the spirit of wanting things to be "better", I rearranged the furniture in the office. The changes were a little unconventional, yet  the layout was more efficient and would lead to a better functioning of the office. People often have a resistance to change, especially when the change is thrust upon them without giving them a chance to make a choice. So, the reactions of my co-workers...