Affective Interpersonal Touch in Close Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Sorokowska A., Saluja S., Sorokowski P., Frąckowiak T., Karwowski M., Aavik T., ...Daha Fazla

PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN, cilt.47, sa.12, ss.1705-1721, 2021 (SSCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 47 Sayı: 12
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1177/0146167220988373
  • Dergi Adı: PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ASSIA, IBZ Online, Periodicals Index Online, CINAHL, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, EMBASE, Index Islamicus, MEDLINE, Political Science Complete, Psycinfo, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Violence & Abuse Abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1705-1721
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: touch behaviors, affective touch, interpersonal behaviors, cross-cultural psychology
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

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.