The study, which is the biggest ever conducted into physical contact, shows that both men and women were uncomfortable with people touching their face – suggesting that the European greeting of kissing someone on both cheeks may be falling from grace. But when it comes to male friends and relatives, they aren’t as comfortable. The unsnappily entitled “touchability index” provides a colour-coded guide to illustrate no-go areas for partners, friends, acquaintances, strangers, aunts and uncles (clearly those that one spends Christmas endeavouring to avoid).
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‘The greater the pleasure caused by touching a specific area of the body, the more selectively we allow others to touch it’. However, researchers found the closer the relationship, the more area is deemed acceptable to be touched-regardless of country of origin.
It also showed – again, unsurprisingly – that the less we know someone, the less comfortable we are to be touched by them.
According to the researchers, the body zones on the touch map are largely related to pleasure.
An Oxford University study has revealed exactly where people do and don’t like to be touched – and the results may surprise you. And male strangers should note that nearly all parts of the female body are to be avoided, other than the hands.
The study asked 1300 men and women from five different countries to colour in areas on a human body where they found it acceptable to be touched and which areas they deemed a taboo zone.
The participants, from Finland, France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom, detailed where strangers, family members, friends, and romantic partners were allowed to touch them.
“It is the relationship rather than familiarity that matters”, Oxford University’s professor Robin Dunbar said in a statement about the research team’s observations.
“Our findings indicate that touching is an important means of maintaining social relationships”, said researcher Juulia Suvilehto from Aalto University.
They were asked to use yellow for areas of their body they didn’t mind being touched, red for more sensitive regions and black for parts of their anatomy that were totally taboo. In addition, once established, our willingness to be touched by an individual does not fade over time.
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He said: “Touch is universal”. Humans are quite similar to monkeys and apes in that respect, where touch is crucial in establishing and maintaining social bonds. While culture does modulate how we experience it, generally we all respond to touching in the same ways.
