Incidental haptic sensations influence social judgments and decisions

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Cognition
• Haptics

Background:

• Touch is the first sense to develop and crucial for information gathering.
• Physical touch may form the basis for conceptual and metaphorical knowledge.
• This knowledge can be applied to social situations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how basic tactile sensations influence higher social cognitive processing.
• To determine if tactile properties (e.g., weight, texture, hardness) affect social judgments.
• To explore dimension-specific and metaphor-specific effects of touch on cognition.

Main Methods:

• Six experiments were conducted involving nonconscious tactile stimuli.
• Participants interacted with objects varying in weight (heavy/light clipboards).
• Participants solved puzzles varying in texture (rough/smooth) and touched objects of varying hardness (hard/soft).

Main Results:

• Holding heavy clipboards increased the perceived importance of job candidates.
• Solving rough puzzles made social interactions seem more difficult.
• Touching hard objects led to increased rigidity in negotiations.
• Tactile sensations influenced unrelated social impressions and decisions.

Conclusions:

• Basic tactile sensations significantly impact social cognitive processing.
• These influences are specific to the tactile dimension and associated metaphors.
• Touch plays a fundamental, often unconscious, role in social perception and decision-making.