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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans
Published on: March 15, 2019
Gender and culture differences in touching behavior
Rosemarie DiBiase1, Jaime Gunnoe
1Education and Human Services Department, Suffolk University, Boston, MA 02114-4280, USA. rdibiase@attbi.com
Abstract:
The authors used gender and culture to examine the theory that touching behavior is an expression of dominance. Participants were 120 men and women from Italy, the Czech Republic, and the United States. The authors examined both hand touches and nonhand touches. For hand touches, there was a significant gender-by-culture interaction in that Czech men as a group touched more than any of the other groups. For nonhand touches, Czech and Italian women and Italian men as groups touched significantly more than any of the other groups. Taken in cultural context, these results seem to support the dominance theory for touches with the hand but not for nonhand touches. The authors discussed implications and future directions.
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