Warm Partner Contact Is Related to Lower Cardiovascular Reactivity

Grewen, Karen; Anderson, Bobbi Jo; Girdler, Susan S.; Light, Kathleen C.

doi:10.1080/08964280309596065

Cited by 195 publications

(139 citation statements)

References 63 publications

(77 reference statements)

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“…This would be contrary to human touch, which has demonstrated to be beneficial in a variety of stressful contexts (Grewen et al, 2003;Coan et al, 2006;Ditzen et al, 2007;App et al, 2011). Another possible explanation is that the effects of robot-initiated touch are considerably smaller than those of human touch, and therefore difficult to detect with the sample size of our study.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 38%

“…It could be the case that the robot's touch on the shoulder was too limited in contact area and duration. Some literature namely suggests that relatively extensive touching actions such as hugs or massages (contact area) or holding hands (duration) can decrease (physiological) stress responses (e.g., Grewen et al, 2003;Coan et al, 2006;Ditzen et al, 2007). On the other hand, it is claimed that briefly touching one's arm, or providing a supportive pat on the back (e.g., Whitcher and Fisher, 1979;Drescher et al, 1980) can already decrease stress.…”

Section: Stress Responses and Stimuli Aversion (H1 And H2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Receiving social touches has for instance resulted in decreased cortisol levels [i.e., the "stress-hormone" (Heinrichs et al, 2003)], blood pressure, and heart rate (HR) in a variety of stressful contexts. Examples include several forms of physical contact prior to a public speaking task (Grewen et al, 2003;Ditzen et al, 2007), holding hands while being threatened with physical pain (Coan et al, 2006) or while watching unpleasant videos (Kawamichi et al, 2015), or a simple touch from a nurse to a patient, prior to surgery (Whitcher and Fisher, 1979). It is also thought that social touches can deflect one's attention from aversive stimuli (Bellieni et al, 2007;Kawamichi et al, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Affective and Behavioral Responses to Robot-Initiated Social Touch: Toward Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of Physical Contact in Human–Robot Interaction

Willemse

Toet²,

Erp

2017

Front. ICT

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Social touch forms an important aspect of the human non-verbal communication repertoire, but is often overlooked in human-robot interaction. In this study, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches can induce physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses similar to those reported for human touches. Thirty-nine participants were invited to watch a scary movie together with a robot that spoke soothing words. In the Touch condition, these words were accompanied by a touch on the shoulder. We hypothesized that this touch-as compared with no touch-could (H1) attenuate physiological [heart rate (variability), skin conductance, cortisol, and respiration rate] and subjective stress responses that were caused by the movie. Moreover, we expected that a touch could (H2) decrease aversion toward the movie, (H3) increase positive perceptions of the robot (e.g., its appearance and one's attitude toward it), and (H4) increase compliance to the robot's request to make a monetary donation. Although the movie did increase arousal as intended, none of the hypotheses could be confirmed. Our findings suggest that merely simulating a human touching action with the robot's limbs is insufficient to elicit physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses in this specific context and with this amount of participants. To inform future research on the opportunities and limitations of robot-initiated touch, we reflect on our methodology and identify dimensions that may play a role in physical human-robot interactions: e.g., the robot's touching behavior, its appearance and behavior, the user's personality, the body location where the touch is applied, and the (social) context of the interaction. Social touch can only become an integral and effective part of a robot's non-verbal communication repertoire, when we better understand if, and under which boundary conditions such touches can elicit responses in humans.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 38%

Section: Stress Responses and Stimuli Aversion (H1 And H2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Affective and Behavioral Responses to Robot-Initiated Social Touch: Toward Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of Physical Contact in Human–Robot Interaction

Willemse

Toet²,

Erp

2017

Front. ICT

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“…After the assessment, stress levels were expected to have normalized again. With respect to communication performance, in conformity with the positive effects of a warm contact found earlier (Grewen et al, 2003), psychosocial and affective verbal and non-verbal communication behavior was expected to be associated with less stress responses. Associations may, however, depend on the way the communication is rated as either descriptive or normative.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

The impact of assessing simulated bad news consultations on medical students’ stress response and communication performance

Dulmen

Tromp

Grosfeld

et al. 2007

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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SummarySeventy second-year medical students volunteered to participate in a study with the aim of evaluating the impact of the assessment of simulated bad news consultations on their physiological and psychological stress and communication performance. Measurements were taken of salivary cortisol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, state anxiety and global stress using a Visual Analogue Scale. The subjects were asked to take three salivary cortisol samples on the assessment day as well as on a quiet control day, and to take all other measures 5 min before and 10 min after conducting the bad news consultation. Consultations were videotaped and analyzed using the information-giving subscale of the Amsterdam Attitude and Communication Scale (AACS), the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS), and the additional non-verbal measures, smiling, nodding and patient-directed gaze. MANOVA repeated measurements were used to test the difference between the cortisol measurements taken on the assessment and the control day. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the association between physiological and psychological stress measures and the students' communication performance. The analyses were restricted to the sample of 57 students who had complete data records. In anticipation of the communication assessment, cortisol levels remained elevated, indicating a heightened anticipatory stress response. After the assessment, the students' systolic blood pressure, heart rate, globally assessed stress level and state anxiety diminished. Pre-consultation stress did not appear to be related to the quality of the students' communication performance Psychoneuroendocrinology (2007) 32, 943-950 predicted by pre-consultation physiological stress levels in the sense that patient-directed gaze occurred more often the higher the students' systolic blood pressure and heart rate. Post-consultation heart rate remained higher the more often the students had looked at the patient and the more information they had provided. However, the heart rate appeared to diminish the more often the students had reassured the patient. These findings suggest that in evaluating students' communication performance there is a need to take their stress levels into account.

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“…This indicates the direct link between skin stimulation and physiological processes, a link that is preserved later in life. For instance, gentle stroking touch can lower heart rate and blood pressure (Grewen et al 2003), increase transient sympathetic reflexes and increase pain thresholds (Drescher et al 1980;Uvnäs-Moberg 1997), and affect the secretion of stress hormones (Whitcher and Fisher 1979;Shermer 2004;Ditzen et al 2007). Women holding their partner's hand showed attenuated threat-related brain activity in response to mild electric shocks (Coan et al 2006) and reported less pain in a cold pressor task (Master et al 2009).…”

Section: Touch In Social Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Touch in Humanâ€“Computer Interaction

Erp

Toet²

2015

Front. Digit. Humanit.

136

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Touch is our primary non-verbal communication channel for conveying intimate emotions and as such essential for our physical and emotional wellbeing. In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated. However, even though there is increasing evidence that mediated touch affords affective communication, current communication systems (such as videoconferencing) still do not support communication through the sense of touch. As a result, mediated communication does not provide the intense affective experience of co-located communication. The need for ICT mediated or generated touch as an intuitive way of social communication is even further emphasized by the growing interest in the use of touch-enabled agents and robots for healthcare, teaching, and telepresence applications. Here, we review the important role of social touch in our daily life and the available evidence that affective touch can be mediated reliably between humans and between humans and digital agents. We base our observations on evidence from psychology, computer science, sociology, and neuroscience with focus on the first two. Our review shows that mediated affective touch can modulate physiological responses, increase trust and affection, help to establish bonds between humans and avatars or robots, and initiate pro-social behavior. We argue that ICT mediated or generated social touch can (a) intensify the perceived social presence of remote communication partners and (b) enable computer systems to more effectively convey affective information. However, this research field on the crossroads of ICT and psychology is still embryonic and we identify several topics that can help to mature the field in the following areas: establishing an overarching theoretical framework, employing better research methodologies, developing basic social touch building blocks, and solving specific ICT challenges.

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Warm Partner Contact Is Related to Lower Cardiovascular Reactivity

Abstract: The authors investigated the relationship between brief warm social and physical contact among cohabitating couples and blood pressure (BP) reactivity to stress in a sample of healthy adults (66 African American, 117 Caucasian; 74 women, 109 men

Cited by 195 publications

References 63 publications

Affective and Behavioral Responses to Robot-Initiated Social Touch: Toward Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of Physical Contact in Human–Robot Interaction

Affective and Behavioral Responses to Robot-Initiated Social Touch: Toward Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of Physical Contact in Human–Robot Interaction

The impact of assessing simulated bad news consultations on medical students’ stress response and communication performance

Social Touch in Humanâ€“Computer Interaction

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