The New York Times recently ran an article about some research showing that physical touch has a lot more benefit than many people realize.

A supportive touch from a teacher on the back or the arm encourages students to be twice as likely to volunteer in class. A doctor’s sympathetic touch gives the impression that a medical appointment lasted longer than it actually did. When athletes touch their teammates, they all perform better.

While the scale of the effects surprises me, the overall trend doesn’t. After all, physical touch is one of our most basic ways of communicating and we can share many of our emotional states with a high degree of accuracy from nothing more than how we touch each other. (see the NY …

Continue reading Good Touch in a Touch-Phobic World