Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world /

Agnieszka Sorokowska; Marta Kowal; Supreet Saluja; Toivo Aavik; Charlotte Alm; Afifa Anjum; Kelly Asao; Carlota Batres; Aicha Bensafia; Boris Bizumic; Mahmoud Boussena; David M Buss; Marina Butovskaya; Seda Can; Antonin Carrier; Hakan Cetinkaya; Daniel Conroy-Beam; Rosa María Cueto; Marcin Czub; Seda Dural; Agustín Espinosa; Carla Sofia Esteves; Tomasz Frackowiak; Jorge Contreras-Garduño; Farida Guemaz; Ivana Hromatko; Herak Iskra; Feng Jiang; Konstantinos Kafetsios; Tina Kavcic; Nicolas Kervyn; Nils C Köbis; Aleksandra Kostić; András Láng; Torun Lindholm; Zoi Manesi; Norbert Meskó; Girishwar Misra; Conal Monaghan; Jean Carlos Natividade; George Nizharadze; Elisabeth Oberzaucher; Anna Oleszkiewicz; Ariela Francesca Pagani; Vilmantė Pakalniškienė; Miriam Parise; Marija Pejičić; Annette Pisanski; Kasia Pisanski; Camelia Popa; Pavol Prokop; Rūta Sargautytė; Shivantika Sharad; Franco Simonetti; Piotr Sorokowski; Michal Mikolaj Stefanczyk; Anna Szagdaj; Meri Tadinac; Karina Ugalde González; Olga Uhryn; Christin-Melanie Vauclair; Gyesook Yoo; Maja Zupančič; Ilona Croy

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-31502-1

Title	Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world /
Authors	Sorokowska, Agnieszka ; Kowal, Marta ; Saluja, Supreet ; Aavik, Toivo ; Alm, Charlotte ; Anjum, Afifa ; Asao, Kelly ; Batres, Carlota ; Bensafia, Aicha ; Bizumic, Boris ; Boussena, Mahmoud ; Buss, David M ; Butovskaya, Marina ; Can, Seda ; Carrier, Antonin ; Cetinkaya, Hakan ; Conroy-Beam, Daniel ; Cueto, Rosa María ; Czub, Marcin ; Dural, Seda ; Espinosa, Agustín ; Esteves, Carla Sofia ; Frackowiak, Tomasz ; Contreras-Garduño, Jorge ; Guemaz, Farida ; Hromatko, Ivana ; Iskra, Herak ; Jiang, Feng ; Kafetsios, Konstantinos ; Kavcic, Tina ; Kervyn, Nicolas ; Köbis, Nils C ; Kostić, Aleksandra ; Láng, András ; Lindholm, Torun ; Manesi, Zoi ; Meskó, Norbert ; Misra, Girishwar ; Monaghan, Conal ; Natividade, Jean Carlos ; Nizharadze, George ; Oberzaucher, Elisabeth ; Oleszkiewicz, Anna ; Pagani, Ariela Francesca ; Pakalniškienė, Vilmantė ; Parise, Miriam ; Pejičić, Marija ; Pisanski, Annette ; Pisanski, Kasia ; Popa, Camelia ; Prokop, Pavol ; Sargautytė, Rūta ; Sharad, Shivantika ; Simonetti, Franco ; Sorokowski, Piotr ; Stefanczyk, Michal Mikolaj ; Szagdaj, Anna ; Tadinac, Meri ; González, Karina Ugalde ; Uhryn, Olga ; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie ; Yoo, Gyesook ; Zupančič, Maja ; Croy, Ilona
DOI	10.1038/s41598-023-31502-1
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Is Part of	Scientific reports.. Berlin : Nature Portfolio. 2023, vol. 13, iss. 1, art. no. 5497, p. [1-13].. eISSN 2045-2322
Abstract [eng]	Touch is the primary way people communicate intimacy in romantic relationships, and affectionate touch behaviors such as stroking, hugging and kissing are universally observed in partnerships all over the world. Here, we explored the association of love and affectionate touch behaviors in romantic partnerships in two studies comprising 7880 participants. In the first study, we used a cross-cultural survey conducted in 37 countries to test whether love was universally associated with affectionate touch behaviors. In the second study, using a more fine-tuned touch behavior scale, we tested whether the frequency of affectionate touch behaviors was related to love in romantic partnerships. As hypothesized, love was significantly and positively associated with affectionate touch behaviors in both studies and this result was replicated regardless of the inclusion of potentially relevant factors as controls. Altogether, our data strongly suggest that affectionate touch is a relatively stable characteristic of human romantic relationships that is robustly and reliably related to the degree of reported love between partners.
Published	Berlin : Nature Portfolio
Type	Journal article
Language	English
Publication date	2023
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„Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world /“