the meanings of touch: sex differences

tuan nguyen, richard heslin, michele l. nguyen

study to determine a) whether males and females attach similar meanings to a touch applied to equivalent body areas, b) examine how much reliance is placed by the decoder of a tactile message on its modality relative to its bodily location, c) examined whether differences in meaning, could be based on psychophysical and physiological characteristics.

Male and female participants where given a diagram that divided the body into different areas and where asked to tell what a certain touch on a certain body part meant to them.

Male and females interpret different the meanings of touches they receive from an opposite-sex friend.

Types of touch and body locations touched are associated with the same meanings by men and women, but feelings/reactions differ.

Study was conducted prior to jones and Yarbrough. Does not consider the context of the touch, participants were given words to associate so there was less participant involvement in defining the meanings.