The space between us: The effect of perceived threat on discomfort distance and perceived pleasantness of interpersonal vicarious touch.

Autor:	Abra Y; Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), 6G life, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany., Mirams L; School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom., Fairhurst MT; Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), 6G life, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Heliyon [Heliyon] 2024 Aug 16; Vol. 10 (16), pp. e36487. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Aug 16 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI:	10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36487
Abstrakt:	The space we keep between ourselves and others allows us either to engage in close shared experiences or to distance ourselves for safety. Focusing primarily on the latter, previous studies have identified a link between interpersonal boundaries and perceived threat, perceptual discrimination including pain perception as well as how we move and behave as a result. Although interpersonal distancing has been studied in a range of contexts, a mechanistic way of how such spatial behaviour might alter how we perceive affective touch has yet to be investigated. Here we probe the effect of perceived threat of COVID-19 on interpersonal boundary preferences and perceived pleasantness of vicarious affective touch. Our results demonstrate that increased perceived threat from COVID-19 is associated with larger boundaries of discomfort distance. Moreover, we show a positive association between perceived threat and pleasantness of vicarious touch coming from a member of the household, but no association with outsider touch. Importantly, rather than focusing on the purely "positive" and prosocial functions of affective touch, these results bolster a novel perspective that socially-relevant cues guide both approach and avoidance behaviours. Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Merle Fairhurst reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/501100001659Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (10.13039/501100001659DFG). Merle Fairhurst reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/501100002347Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. (© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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