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Discovery: Anatomy Of Touch: Touch hunger

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12/10/2020 GMT

Touch hunger

Anatomy Of Touch

BBC World Service - Discovery, Anatomy Of Touch, Touch hungerSearch BBC

How to overcome touch hunger in the pandemic

Claudia Hammond explores our experience of touch hunger, and asks if we have enough touch in our lives. Covid-19 and social distancing have changed how most people feel about touch but even before the pandemic there was a concern about the decrease of touch in society. Claudia and Professor Michael Bannissy of Goldsmiths, University of London, discuss the results of the BBC Touch Test, an online questionnaire that was completed by around 40 000 people from 112 countries. Professor Tiffany Field, Director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and Merle Fairhurst, Professor of Biological Psychology at Bundeswehr University Munich, reveal their findings about the impact of touch hunger and how to overcome it.

John grew up during the Second World War and endured a lack of touch in his childhood. He relates how in adult life he overcame this absence of touch and why touch remains so important to him. And left isolating in London during lock down, flatmates B and Z came up with a plan to stay healthy with a 6 o’clock hug. Hugging releases a mix of anti-stress chemicals that can lower the blood pressure, decrease anxiety and help sleep.

Discovery: Anatomy Of Touch

Claudia Hammond explores current global attitudes to touch revealed by The Touch Test.

Claudia Hammond explores current global attitudes to touch revealed by The Touch Test. This was an online study commissioned by Wellcome Collection and created by psychologists at Goldsmiths University of London which investigated public attitudes towards and experiences of the physical experience of touch. Almost 40,000 people from 112 different countries chose to take part between 21st January and 30th March 2020.
 
The first programme takes  the result that around three quarters of the participants have a positive attitude to and around a quarter have a negative attitude to touch. Claudia and guests explore what good touch looks and feels like, and what is happening to our physiology and psychology when we make contact with another person. She hears from two flatmates who under lockdown decided to allow themselves a daily hug. 
 
Claudia also discusses the concept of touch hunger, a craving for human contact, physical connection and warmth. Has touch hunger increased during the pandemic and what might be the long term consequences of our mental health and future relationships? Claudia tries out an app that can overcome the lack of touch.

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