I wanna hold your hand: Handholding is preferred over gentle stroking for emotion regulation.

ABSTRACT: Social touch is an important form of interpersonal emotion regulation. In recent years, the emotion regulation effects of two types of touch have been studied extensively: handholding and stroking (specifically of skin with C-tactile afferents on the forearm, i.e. C-touch). While some studies compare their effectiveness, with mixed results, no study to date has examined which type of touch is subjectively preferred. Given the potential bidirectional communication provided by handholding, we hypothesized that to regulate intense emotions, participants would prefer handholding. In four pre-registered online studies (total N = 287), participants rated handholding and stroking, presented in short videos, as emotion regulation methods. Study 1 examined touch reception preference in hypothetical

SUBMITTER: Sened H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10079127 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature