Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. 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 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. Touch is the primary way people communicate intimacy in romantic relationships 1. Partners are touched significantly more often than are other people 2 and individuals in a romantic relationship report significantly more intimate touch than do single people 3.
For example, most people feel comfortable when they are touched in the abdomen and thighs by their partner, but not by other people 5. Additionally, the types of affectionate touch performed in partnerships are more heterogeneous than in other social interactions 6. A stroke, for instance, is performed with a particularly low velocity 7 when it is directed to a romantic partner.
