Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world.

Journal: Scientific reports

Volume: 13

Issue: 1

Year of Publication: 2023

Affiliated Institutions:  Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Ul. Dawida , -, Wroclaw, Poland. agnieszka.sorokowska@uwr.edu.pl. IDN Being Human Lab, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Westminster College, Salt Lake City, USA. Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, USA. University of Algiers, Algiers, Algeria. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. University Setif, Setif, Algeria. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA. Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey. University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru. Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Ul. Dawida , -, Wroclaw, Poland. Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal. Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, UNAM, Morelia, Mexico. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. University of Greenwich, London, UK. Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Crete, Greece. University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany. University of Niš, Niš, Serbia. University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. University of Delhi, Delhi, India. Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy. Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania. Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland. Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José, USA. Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Lviv, Costa Rica. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal. Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea. Institute of Psychology, University of Jena, Jena, Germany.

Abstract summary 

Touch is the primary way people communicate intimacy in romantic relationships, and affectionate touch behaviors such as stroking, hugging and kissing are universally observed in partnerships all over the world. Here, we explored the association of love and affectionate touch behaviors in romantic partnerships in two studies comprising 7880 participants. In the first study, we used a cross-cultural survey conducted in 37 countries to test whether love was universally associated with affectionate touch behaviors. In the second study, using a more fine-tuned touch behavior scale, we tested whether the frequency of affectionate touch behaviors was related to love in romantic partnerships. As hypothesized, love was significantly and positively associated with affectionate touch behaviors in both studies and this result was replicated regardless of the inclusion of potentially relevant factors as controls. Altogether, our data strongly suggest that affectionate touch is a relatively stable characteristic of human romantic relationships that is robustly and reliably related to the degree of reported love between partners.

Authors & Co-authors:  Sorokowska Agnieszka A Kowal Marta M Saluja Supreet S Aavik Toivo T Alm Charlotte C Anjum Afifa A Asao Kelly K Batres Carlota C Bensafia Aicha A Bizumic Boris B Boussena Mahmoud M Buss David M DM Butovskaya Marina M Can Seda S Carrier Antonin A Cetinkaya Hakan H Conroy-Beam Daniel D Cueto Rosa María RM Czub Marcin M Dural Seda S Espinosa Agustín A Esteves Carla Sofia CS Frackowiak Tomasz T Contreras-Garduño Jorge J Guemaz Farida F Hromatko Ivana I Iskra Herak H Jiang Feng F Kafetsios Konstantinos K Kavcic Tina T Kervyn Nicolas N Köbis Nils C NC Kostić Aleksandra A Láng András A Lindholm Torun T Manesi Zoi Z Meskó Norbert N Misra Girishwar G Monaghan Conal C Natividade Jean Carlos JC Nizharadze George G Oberzaucher Elisabeth E Oleszkiewicz Anna A Pagani Ariela Francesca AF Pakalniskiene Vilmante V Parise Miriam M Pejičić Marija M Pisanski Annette A Pisanski Kasia K Popa Camelia C Prokop Pavol P Sargautyte Ruta R Sharad Shivantika S Simonetti Franco F Sorokowski Piotr P Stefanczyk Michal Mikolaj MM Szagdaj Anna A Tadinac Meri M González Karina Ugalde KU Uhryn Olga O Vauclair Christin-Melanie CM Yoo Gyesook G Zupančič Maja M Croy Ilona I

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations :  Marston PJ, Hecht ML, Manke ML, Mcdaniel S, Reeder H. The subjective experience of intimacy, passion, and commitment in heterosexual loving relationships. Pers. Relatsh. 1998;5:15–30. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6811.1998.tb00157.x.
Authors :  64
Identifiers
Doi : 5497
SSN : 2045-2322
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Humans
Other Terms
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
England