Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world

Agnieszka Sorokowska¹, Marta Kowal², Supreet Saluja³, Toivo Aavik⁴, Charlotte Alm⁵, Afifa Anjum⁶, Kelly Asao⁷, Carlota Batres⁸, Aicha Bensafia⁹, Boris Bizumic¹⁰, Mahmoud Boussena¹¹, David M Buss¹², Marina Butovskaya¹³, Seda Can¹⁴, Antonin Carrier¹⁵, Hakan Cetinkaya¹⁶, Daniel Conroy-Beam¹⁷, Rosa María Cueto¹⁸, Marcin Czub¹⁹, Seda Dural¹⁴, Agustín Espinosa¹⁸, Carla Sofia Esteves²⁰, Tomasz Frackowiak¹⁹, Jorge Contreras-Garduño²¹, Farida Guemaz¹¹, Ivana Hromatko²², Herak Iskra¹⁵, Feng Jiang²³, Konstantinos Kafetsios²⁴, Tina Kavcic²⁵, Nicolas Kervyn¹⁵, Nils C Köbis²⁶, Aleksandra Kostić²⁷, András Láng²⁸, Torun Lindholm⁵, Zoi Manesi²⁹, Norbert Meskó²⁸, Girishwar Misra³⁰, Conal Monaghan¹⁰, Jean Carlos Natividade³¹, George Nizharadze³², Elisabeth Oberzaucher³³, Anna Oleszkiewicz^{19

34}, Ariela Francesca Pagani³⁵, Vilmante Pakalniskiene³⁶, Miriam Parise³⁷, Marija Pejičić²⁷, Annette Pisanski³⁸, Kasia Pisanski^{19

39}, Camelia Popa⁴⁰, Pavol Prokop⁴¹, Ruta Sargautyte³⁶, Shivantika Sharad³⁰, Franco Simonetti⁴², Piotr Sorokowski¹⁹, Michal Mikolaj Stefanczyk¹⁹, Anna Szagdaj⁴³, Meri Tadinac²², Karina Ugalde González⁴⁴, Olga Uhryn⁴⁵, Christin-Melanie Vauclair⁴⁶, Gyesook Yoo⁴⁷, Maja Zupančič²⁵, Ilona Croy^{48

49}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Ul. Dawida 1, 50-527, Wroclaw, Poland. agnieszka.sorokowska@uwr.edu.pl.
² IDN Being Human Lab, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
³ Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
⁵ Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁷ Westminster College, Salt Lake City, USA.
⁸ Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, USA.
⁹ University of Algiers, Algiers, Algeria.
¹⁰ Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
¹¹ University Setif2, Setif, Algeria.
¹² University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA.
¹³ Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
¹⁴ Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey.
¹⁵ Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
¹⁶ Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey.
¹⁷ University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA.
¹⁸ Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru.
¹⁹ Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Ul. Dawida 1, 50-527, Wroclaw, Poland.
²⁰ Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal.
²¹ Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, UNAM, Morelia, Mexico.
²² University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
²³ University of Greenwich, London, UK.
²⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Crete, Greece.
²⁵ University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
²⁶ Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
²⁷ University of Niš, Niš, Serbia.
²⁸ University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
²⁹ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³⁰ University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
³¹ Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³² Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia.
³³ University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
³⁴ Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
³⁵ University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy.
³⁶ Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
³⁷ Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
³⁸ University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
³⁹ CNRS, University of Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
⁴⁰ Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania.
⁴¹ Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁴² Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
⁴³ Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland.
⁴⁴ Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José, USA.
⁴⁵ Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Lviv, Costa Rica.
⁴⁶ Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal.
⁴⁷ Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁴⁸ Institute of Psychology, University of Jena, Jena, Germany.
⁴⁹ German Center for Mental Health, Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany.

PMID: 37015974
PMCID: PMC10073073
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31502-1

Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world

Agnieszka Sorokowska et al. Sci Rep. 2023.

. 2023 Apr 4;13(1):5497.

doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31502-1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Ul. Dawida 1, 50-527, Wroclaw, Poland. agnieszka.sorokowska@uwr.edu.pl.
² IDN Being Human Lab, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
³ Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
⁵ Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁷ Westminster College, Salt Lake City, USA.
⁸ Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, USA.
⁹ University of Algiers, Algiers, Algeria.
¹⁰ Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
¹¹ University Setif2, Setif, Algeria.
¹² University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA.
¹³ Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
¹⁴ Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey.
¹⁵ Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
¹⁶ Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey.
¹⁷ University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA.
¹⁸ Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru.
¹⁹ Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Ul. Dawida 1, 50-527, Wroclaw, Poland.
²⁰ Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal.
²¹ Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, UNAM, Morelia, Mexico.
²² University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
²³ University of Greenwich, London, UK.
²⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Crete, Greece.
²⁵ University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
²⁶ Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
²⁷ University of Niš, Niš, Serbia.
²⁸ University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
²⁹ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³⁰ University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
³¹ Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³² Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia.
³³ University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
³⁴ Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
³⁵ University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy.
³⁶ Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
³⁷ Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
³⁸ University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
³⁹ CNRS, University of Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
⁴⁰ Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania.
⁴¹ Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁴² Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
⁴³ Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland.
⁴⁴ Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José, USA.
⁴⁵ Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Lviv, Costa Rica.
⁴⁶ Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal.
⁴⁷ Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁴⁸ Institute of Psychology, University of Jena, Jena, Germany.
⁴⁹ German Center for Mental Health, Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany.

PMID: 37015974
PMCID: PMC10073073
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31502-1

Abstract

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Partner Affectionate Touch Frequency across Four Types of Touch Behaviors (i.e., Embracing, Stroking, Kissing, and Hugging One’s Partner). *Note* Error bars represent standard errors.

**Figure 2**
Partner Affectionate Touch Frequency on Weekdays and Weekends. *Note* Boxplots represent interquartile range of given Partner Affectionate Touch Frequency indices.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world

Affiliations

Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Research Materials