SMART THINKING

New research shows the way we feel about being touched is shaped by our personal and generational affective history.

The role of touch in our psychohistory.

Touch is a vital form of bonding, and is important for development. But new research from the University of Eastern Finland reveals that touch also plays an important role in our psychohistory.

For the study, researchers analysed ‘touch biographies’ written by Finnish people of different backgrounds. In their accounts, authors narrated their lives through the ways in which they have touched. By analysing the touch biographies, the researchers explored how norms related to touch are then reproduced through emotions.

“The Finnish affective history is shaped by war, and by childcare ideals where the absence of a caring touch was prominent,” Dr Taina Kinnunen, from the University of Eastern Finland, explains. “Many older authors describe having suffered from affective coldness and a lack of touch. However, this kind of an affective pattern was probably the only way to survive hard times. The need to manage alone developed into a virtue – ‘the strong manage alone, the weak in each other’s laps’ is a traditional Finnish saying.”

The study also found touch inequalities can be transmitted through generations. Some of the biography authors associated touch predominantly with care, love, and warmth. In these biographies, touch was registered as a lifelong resource. Others associated touch with traumatic experiences, such as violence. “Due to their different life experiences, individuals may register similar kinds of touch in different ways. A single affectively strong touch may transform a person’s repertoire – for example, a person may feel that a sudden caring touch is life-saving,” Dr Kinnunen says.

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