How can consensual touch communicate care, and where does interpretation begin?
One review found that an object, or a robot, eased the body about as much as a person, and the mood less. The body answered. It did not say what the touch meant, or whether anyone had been tender.
Touch
Packheiser and colleagues, 2024, reviewed touch against no touch. In the meta-analysis, 137 studies and 12,966 people. For adults, touch was associated with less pain, less depression, and less anxiety. People know when they are being touched, so the studies cannot be blind.
Sixteen married women were scanned under threat of shock. Holding a spouse’s hand reduced the threat response more than holding a stranger’s, and more so when the marriage was rated higher. Coan, Schaefer, and Davidson measured that difference.
A slow, light touch on hairy skin rides different nerves from the touch that tells you where a point is. McGlone, Wessberg, and Olausson call that difference affective.