Julia Chivu ’23

Across cultures and continents, affection serves as a universal bond that unites romantic partners. Researchers from various institutions worldwide collaborated on two studies to better understand and quantify the dynamic between love and touch. The first study sought to investigate the global association between love and touch-related behaviors. The second study examined the correlation between frequencies of affectionate touch and love amongst romantic partners. The researchers hypothesized that love and affection expressed through touch were positively related.

The first study consisted of 7,681 participants from 37 countries, ranging in age from 15 to 87 years old, all of whom were in romantic relationships. Each participant completed an “Affective Touch Questionnaire”, examining the extent to which individuals engaged in various touch behaviors, including hugging, stroking, embracing, and kissing. The researchers presented pictograms of the four touch behaviors to assess participants’ engagement in each type with their partners in the preceding week. The “Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale” was used to quantify the degree of love a person felt towards their partner. While thinking about their partner, the participants responded to 45 statements about passion, intimacy, or commitment, rating their agreement with each using a 9-point Likert scale. From the collected data, a mean love score for each participant was determined. The second study exclusively involved participants from Poland, who completed similar exams as the first group. However, the questionnaire administered to them instead measured the amount of times per day each type of touch was exhibited on their partner. The second study also compared the frequency of each type of touch on weekdays versus weekends.

Both studies supported the researchers’ hypothesis. The first study found that participants who expressed greater love for their partners engaged in a wider variety of affectionate behaviors. In addition, younger age groups displayed affectionate touch more often than older ones. The second study revealed that partners touched each other affectionately about three times an hour. Caressing was also the most reported type of touch. In addition, the number of daily touches was not correlated with a specific day of the week. This research is unique, seeing as it is one of few projects that offers empirical proof supporting the widely-observed phenomenon of increased affection commonly observed in romantic partnerships. These findings could further inspire future research to explore the benefits of enhancing affectionate touch within relationships.

Works Cited: 

[1] A. Sorokowska, et al., Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world. Scientific Reports 13, (2023). doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31502-1. 

[2] Image retrieved from: https://unsplash.com/photos/grayscale-photo-of-persons-hand-cIcBInoyb7U