Can’t touch this: Body map outlines where people like (or don’t like) to be touched

While some of us can be described as “touchy feely”, others recoil from even the suggestion of being touched by someone else. A new body map created by European researchers outlines just where people say they don’t mind being touched, and what body parts are off limits.

The body map was created by asking more than 1,300 volunteers from the United Kingdom, Finland, France, Italy, and Russia to color in outlines of the human body with where they were and were not comfortable being touched by people of varying degrees of acquaintance—from a romantic partner to a complete stranger. Participants were also asked to say why they would allow someone to touch them.
The researchers found that British people are generally less comfortable with touching than men and women from the other countries, a sign that culture plays an important role in how we perceive touch. However, researchers found the closer the relationship, the more area is deemed acceptable to be touched–regardless of country of origin.
The study also visually revealed what many of us feel instinctively. Women are not comfortable being touched by unfamiliar men. Men do not like their genitals touched, even by relatives like brothers or aunts. (Well…this is awkward.)
“The results indicate that touching is an important means of maintaining social relationships,” study author Juulia Suvilehto, from Aalto University in Finland, said in a statement. “The touch space map is closely associated with the pleasure caused by touching. The greater the pleasure caused by touching a specific area of the body, the more selectively we allow others to touch it.”
Relationship between people determines where touching is acceptable
Study author and Oxford University professor Robin Dunbar said the relationship between individuals, rather than familiarity, is the primary factor at work here.
“A friend we haven’t seen for some time will still be able to touch areas where an acquaintance we see every day would not,” Dunbar said. “We also interpret touch depending on the context of the relationship – we may perceive a touch in a particular place from a relative or friend as a comforting gesture, while the same touch from a partner might be more pleasurable, and from a stranger it would be entirely unwelcome.”
“Touch is universal,” he added. “While culture does modulate how we experience it, generally we all respond to touching in the same ways. Even in an era of mobile communications and social media, touch is still important for establishing and maintaining the bonds between people.”
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Feature Image: Mitja Mavsar/Flickr
Story Image: Oxford University