Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

We show that minimal physical contact can increase people’s sense of security and consequently lead them to increased risk-taking behavior. In three experiments, with both hypothetical and real payoffs, a female experimenter’s light, comforting pat on the shoulder led participants to greater financial risk taking. Further, this effect was both mediated and moderated by feelings of security in both male and female participants. Finally, we established the boundary conditions for the impact of physical contact on risk-taking behaviors by demonstrating that the effect does not occur when the touching is performed by a male and is attenuated when the touch consists of a handshake. The results suggest that subtle physical contact can be strongly influential in decision making and the willingness to accept risk.

Keywords

interpersonal touch risk taking affect financial decision making physical contact

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ainsworth

M.D.S.

Blehar

M.C.

Waters

Wall

(1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Bowlby

(1951). Maternal care and mental health. New York: Schocken.

Burgoon

J.K.

(1991). Relational message interpretations of touch, conversational touch, conversational distance, and posture. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 15, 233–259.

Burgoon

J.K.

Walther

J.B.

Baesler

E.J.

(1992). Interpretations, evaluations, and consequences of interpersonal touch. Human Communication Research, 19, 237–263.

Coan

J.A.

Schaefer

H.S.

Davidson

R.J.

(2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17, 1032–1039.

Crusco

A.H.

Wetzel

C.G.

(1984). The Midas touch: The effects of interpersonal touch on restaurant tipping. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10, 512–517.

Harlow

H.F.

(1958). The nature of love. American Psychologist, 13, 673–685.

Hertenstein

M.J.

Verkamp

J.M.

Kerestes

A.M.

Holmes

R.M.

(2006). The communicative functions of touch in humans, nonhuman primates, and rats: A review and synthesis of the empirical research. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 132, 5–94.

Hewitt

Feltham

(1982). Differential reaction to touch by men and women. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 55, 1291–1294.

10.

Hsee

C.K.

Weber

E.U.

(1999). Cross-national differences in risk preferences and lay predictions for the differences. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 12, 165–179.

11.

Knutson

Wimmer

G.E.

Kuhnen

C.M.

Winkielman

(2008). Nucleus accumbens activation mediates the influence of reward cues on financial risk taking. NeuroReport, 19, 509–513.

12.

Korner

A.F.

(1990). The many faces of touch. In Barnard

K.E.

Brazelton

T.B.

(Eds.), Touch: The foundation of experience (pp. 269–297). Madison, CT: International Universities Press.

13.

Loewenstein

G.F.

Weber

E.U.

Hsee

C.K.

Welch

(2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 267–286.

14.

Mano

(1994). Risk taking, framing effects, and affect. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 57, 38–58.

15.

Mehrabian

(1970). Silent messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

16.

Niedenthal

P.M.

(2007). Embodying emotion. Science, 316, 1002–1005.

17.

Niedenthal

P.M.

Winkielman

Mondillon

Vermeulen

(2009). Embodiment of emotion concepts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1120–1136.

18.

Punzo

Alvarez

(2002). Effects of early contact with maternal parent on locomotor activity and exploratory behavior in spiderlings of Hogna carolinensis (Araneae: Lycosidae). Journal of Insect Behavior, 15, 455–465.

19.

Watson

Clark

L.A.

Tellegen

(1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

20.

Weaver

de Waal

F.B.M.

(2003). The mother-offspring relationship as a template in social development: Reconciliation in captive brown capuchins (Cebus paella). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 101–110.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB