Gesturing and Self-Contact of Right and Left Halves of the Body: Relationship with Eye-Contact

Ruggieri, Vezio; Celli, Carlotta; Crescenzi, Antonella

doi:10.2466/pms.1982.55.3.695

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, since our setting did not elicit the expected amplification of left-handed sFST we need to bring into question why that was not the case. Previous studies that elicited higher left-handed ST frequencies have either investigated patients with depressive symptoms, anxiety or high field dependence [30,31] or healthy subjects had to answer embarrassing questions [32,33]. While depression, anxiety and embarrassment all constitute negative emotional states they may still be very different from the states that were induced by the sounds that were used in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Furthermore, Ruggieri and colleagues found that when female psychology students recalled and told embarrassing personal stories left-handed ST occurred more frequently and lasted significantly longer than right-handed ST. When the same students were asked more neutral questions, about their daily routines and their last vacation, right-handed ST occurred relatively more often [32,33]. The authors attributed the increase in right-handed ST to the order of succession of their experimental questions: since the more neutral questions were asked first, the subjects may have felt initial social anxiety during the first interpersonal contact with a stranger who asks them personal questions [33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One possible explanation for the situational variation of ST-laterality may be that the sensorimotor activation of the hand mirrors the predominant hemispheric activation of any given task or situation [32,33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Self-touch: Contact durations and point of touch of spontaneous facial self-touches differ depending on cognitive and emotional load

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Every human being spontaneously touches its eyes, cheeks, chin and mouth manifold every day. These spontaneous facial self-touches (sFST) are elicited with little or no awareness and are distinct from gestures and instrumental acts. Self-touch frequency has been shown to be influenced by negative affect and attention distraction and may be involved in regulating emotion and working memory functions. Yet, even though self-touch research dates back several decades fundamental aspects, like the temporal progression of sFST or the effects of executing hand and touched face area, have not yet been analyzed. For the first time, the present study measured sFST temporal aspects to the millisecond using accelerometers and EMG. Spontaneous self-touch was triggered in sixty participants who completed a delayed memory task of complex haptic relief stimuli while listening to distracting aversive sounds. We found that while both hands were used equally often and with the same overall movement times and contact durations, significant effects occurred for face area in both frequency and contact durations. Ergo the point of touch seems to have some relevance of its own, independently of which hand is used to perform it. The results show that not only frequency but also the point of touch and contact durations are influenced by cognitive and emotional demands. We argue that investigating the fundamental characteristics of sFST will further the understanding of cognitive focusing and attentional mechanisms.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Self-touch: Contact durations and point of touch of spontaneous facial self-touches differ depending on cognitive and emotional load

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There has been plenty of evidence that self-touch is associated with anxiety (e.g., Ekman & Friesen, 1972;Grunwald et al, 2014;Harrigan, 1985;Troisi et al, 2000). Self-touch is proposed to cope with unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, stress, discomfort, and hostility (e.g., Ekman & Friesen, 1969Ruggieri et al, 1982). Hence, people tend to produce more self-touch during more intense emotional states (e.g., Freedman & Bucci, 1981;Heaven & McBrayer, 2000).…”

Section: Self-touch and Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual Differences in Conversational Self-Touch Frequency Correlate with State Anxiety

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Self-touches are frequently performed in everyday conversations. Although self-touch appears to relate to itching skin sensations or grooming needs, there has been cumulating evidence that the production of self-touch is associated with emotional regulation and cognitive control. Yet, individuals vary greatly in how often they perform self-touch in conversations. The present study investigated how individuals’ anxiety levels (i.e., state and trait anxiety), personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness), and inhibition ability can contribute to the individual differences in conversational self-touch frequency. Spontaneous self-touch was elicited from a hundred and twenty-seven participants in an animated cartoon description task and a social dilemma-solving task. Results from the correlational analysis showed that the self-touch frequency was significantly positively related to individuals’ state and trait anxiety levels and their neuroticism scores but was significantly negatively related to their agreeableness scores. However, when all predictor variables were entered simultaneously into a multiple regression analysis, the result showed that the state anxiety score was the only significant predictor of the conversational self-touch frequency. This result is consistent with the proposal that self-touch behaviors are produced to regulate negative emotional states such as anxiety and stress. The findings of the present study shed new light on the function of self-touch behaviors in conversations, and highlight the importance of using a broad correlational approach with simultaneous consideration of multiple predictors in future research aiming to understand individual differences in self-touch behaviors.

show abstract

“…Observational research such as that discussed above (Ruggieri et al, 1982;Harrigan, 1985;Moszkowski & Stack, 2007;Nagy et al, 2019) has focused on the observation of self-adaptors in situations of heightened anxiety; however, the levels of anxiety and stress involved were not measured quantitatively in these studies. For a study that does quantified anxiety and stress, we may turn to Pang et al (2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of self-adaptors on the reduction of stress

Maki,

Sekine

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study explored whether self-adaptors serve as an immediate or preventive effect for coping with stress, or whether they have no effect at all. To assess the effectiveness of self-adaptors in managing stress, either before or during a stress event, the research was carried out under three conditions: self-adaptors used during the stress task, before the stress task, and a control condition where self-adaptors were inhibited. The study analyzed cortisol levels, heart rate, and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores. The results revealed that self-adaptors employed during a stress task did not reduce stress levels compared to the control group, where no self-adaptors were used. Conversely, self-adaptors applied just before a stress event were effective in reducing stress levels relative to the control. Based on these findings, it appears that self-adaptors can preventively mitigate anticipated stress and anxiety as a coping strategy but fail to immediately reduce stress levels. The lack of effectiveness in immediate stress reduction could be attributed to participants' inability to focus on self-adaptors due to heightened stress during the task.

show abstract

Gesturing and Self-Contact of Right and Left Halves of the Body: Relationship with Eye-Contact

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

Self-touch: Contact durations and point of touch of spontaneous facial self-touches differ depending on cognitive and emotional load

Self-touch: Contact durations and point of touch of spontaneous facial self-touches differ depending on cognitive and emotional load

Individual Differences in Conversational Self-Touch Frequency Correlate with State Anxiety

The influence of self-adaptors on the reduction of stress

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About