The Associations Between Attitudes Toward Interpersonal Affective Touch, Negative Cognitions and Social Anxiety: A Pilot Study

Objective: Affectionate touch promotes psychological well-being likely through inducing cognitive and neurobiological changes, which implies the inverse association of affectionate touch to negative cognitive and psychosocial outcomes. Our aim was to explore relationships between attitudes toward interpersonal touch and social anxiety through fear of negative evaluation and self-critical rumination as mediating variables.Method: Data from 250 participants (69.6% females, n = 174) ranging in age from 18 to 65 years were collected through self-report inventories assessing attitudes toward physical touch from friends and family, nonromantic intimate person and unfamiliar person, fear of negative evaluation, self-critical rumination, and social anxiety. A moderated-mediation analysis was conducted. Results: No direct link was seen between attitudes toward friends and family touch experiences and social anxiety in both genders, but mediation through fear of negative evaluation was significant (p < .05). Attitudes toward nonromantic intimate touch were related to social anxiety only in females and only indirectly through self-critical rumination (p < .05). In both males and females, attitudes toward touch from unfamiliar persons were linked to social anxiety directly (p < .05) but indirect paths through fear of negative evaluation (p < .05) and self-critical rumination were seen only in females (p < .05). Conclusions: Findings indicate that attitudes toward interpersonal affectionate touch may be predictive of social anxiety and the negative cognitions associated with it, extending previous findings on social pain and attesting to the potential clinical utility of touch-based interventions for social anxiety.