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Positive attitudes towards touch are linked with greater well-being and lower levels of loneliness, according to a huge new global study from BBC Radio 4’s All In The Mind and Wellcome Collection, which investigated public attitudes and experiences of touch.
Primarily conducted before the UK was in lockdown, the Touch Test demonstrated that most people view interpersonal touch positively and that nearly half of typical adults felt that society does not enable us to touch enough, even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the BBC, this study provides one of the most detailed sources of insight that we have on contemporary attitudes towards touch – at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has brought the subject of touch into the heart of everyone’s lives. The Touch Test garnered responses from almost 40,000 people across 112 different countries and ran from 21 January to 30 March 2020.
The top two findings of the study were that 72% of people reported a positive attitude towards touch, while 43% of typical adults feel that society does not enable us to touch enough.
For more information about the study click here https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/the-touch-test-results)
The Touch Test is the third in a series of studies carried out in partnership with Wellcome Collection and BBC Radio 4. Previous research has focused on loneliness and rest. (Source: BBC Media Centre)