The effect of observing affective touch on anxiety levels
Summary
Affective touch has been proven to have a buffering effect against anxiety, which led to the design of new therapeutic methods based on affective touch. Newer research suggested that observing affective touch may have similarities to the actual perception of touch. This proposes that the beneficial effects of actual social touch may be provided by observation of affective touch as well. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of observing affective touch on anxiety levels. The hypothesis was that observing affective touch would result in a stronger decrease in state anxiety, compared to observing non-affective touch. The final sampled was composed of 76 participants, of which 32 in the observing affective touch condition, and 44 in the observing non-affective touch condition. Anxiety levels were measured at baseline, after an anxiety-provoking task, and after the touch videos. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in anxiety reduction between the two conditions. However, both groups experienced a significant decrease in anxiety after watching the touch videos. These results could be due to limitations in the design of the study. Furthermore, a deeper examination of neurological studies also suggests that the findings may be the result of differing neurological pathways activated by actual touch and observing touch. Additional research on the topic is necessary, as such research could pave the way for developing innovative methods to regulate anxiety levels through the observation of affective touch, potentially benefiting a wide range of individuals.