Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak
Touch is essential for survival, social bonding, and overall health. However, the COVID-19 pandemic calls for an abrupt withdrawal from physical contact, and the prolonged lockdown has left many people in solitude without touch for months. This unprecedented dissociation from touch has cast a shadow...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1016909/full |
| _version_ | 1797988012455362560 |
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| author | Yusuke Ujitoko Takumi Yokosaka Yuki Ban Hsin-Ni Ho |
| author_facet | Yusuke Ujitoko Takumi Yokosaka Yuki Ban Hsin-Ni Ho |
| author_sort | Yusuke Ujitoko |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Touch is essential for survival, social bonding, and overall health. However, the COVID-19 pandemic calls for an abrupt withdrawal from physical contact, and the prolonged lockdown has left many people in solitude without touch for months. This unprecedented dissociation from touch has cast a shadow on people's mental and physical well-being. Here we approached the issue by examining COVID-19's impact on people's touch attitudes. We analyzed people's desire and avoidance for animate and inanimate targets based on large-scale Japanese Twitter posts over an 8-year span. We analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak with the difference-in-differences estimation method, which can estimate the impact while accounting for other changes over time such as seasonality or long-term effects. As a result, we found that people's desire for touching the human body and pet animals increased significantly after the COVID-19 outbreak and remained high afterward. In contrast, the avoidance of touching everyday objects (e.g., doorknobs and money) increased immediately after the outbreak but gradually returned to the pre-COVID-19 levels. Our findings manifest the impact of COVID-19 on human touch behavior. Most importantly, they highlight the sign of “skin hunger,” a public health crisis due to social distancing, and call attention to the trend that people are becoming less aware of infection control as COVID-19 persists. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T07:56:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-96afa2c643424efeb3236c52ce840746 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T07:56:00Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-96afa2c643424efeb3236c52ce8407462022-12-22T04:35:55ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-12-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.10169091016909Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreakYusuke Ujitoko0Takumi Yokosaka1Yuki Ban2Hsin-Ni Ho3NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Atsugi, JapanNTT Communication Science Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Atsugi, JapanGraduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, JapanNTT Communication Science Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Atsugi, JapanTouch is essential for survival, social bonding, and overall health. However, the COVID-19 pandemic calls for an abrupt withdrawal from physical contact, and the prolonged lockdown has left many people in solitude without touch for months. This unprecedented dissociation from touch has cast a shadow on people's mental and physical well-being. Here we approached the issue by examining COVID-19's impact on people's touch attitudes. We analyzed people's desire and avoidance for animate and inanimate targets based on large-scale Japanese Twitter posts over an 8-year span. We analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak with the difference-in-differences estimation method, which can estimate the impact while accounting for other changes over time such as seasonality or long-term effects. As a result, we found that people's desire for touching the human body and pet animals increased significantly after the COVID-19 outbreak and remained high afterward. In contrast, the avoidance of touching everyday objects (e.g., doorknobs and money) increased immediately after the outbreak but gradually returned to the pre-COVID-19 levels. Our findings manifest the impact of COVID-19 on human touch behavior. Most importantly, they highlight the sign of “skin hunger,” a public health crisis due to social distancing, and call attention to the trend that people are becoming less aware of infection control as COVID-19 persists.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1016909/fulltouch desiretouch avoidanceCOVID-19Twitterskin hunger |
| spellingShingle | Yusuke Ujitoko Takumi Yokosaka Yuki Ban Hsin-Ni Ho Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak Frontiers in Psychology touch desire touch avoidance COVID-19 skin hunger |
| title | Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak |
| title_full | Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak |
| title_fullStr | Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak |
| title_short | Tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the COVID-19 outbreak |
| title_sort | tracking changes in touch desire and touch avoidance before and after the covid 19 outbreak |
| topic | touch desire touch avoidance COVID-19 skin hunger |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1016909/full |
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