The Impact of Touch on Interpersonal Interactions

Indianapolis, IN

The act of touching is a nonverbal form of communication that conveys many different meanings. In particular, the presence or absence of touch can have an effect on interpersonal communication. For this study participants were asked to draw anything they wanted on a blank sheet of paper while the researcher walked around the room. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In one condition the researcher would give feedback on the progress and gently touch them on the shoulder. In the other condition, the researcher just gave feedback with no touch. Afterwards, the participants completed a questionnaire to measure the enjoyableness of the task, their confidence in task performance, and their perception of the researcher/participant interaction. Also, a questionnaire that measures Need for Interpersonal Touch was given. It is expected that touching the participant will result in higher ratings for enjoyableness, confidence, and researcher/participant interaction. It is also expected that these positive effects of touch will occur even for those with a lower need for interpersonal touch, although it is expected that those with a higher need will be impacted even more positively overall.