Friendly touch increases gratitude by inducing communal feelings

Friendly touch increases gratitude by inducing communal feelings

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Communion among people is easily identifiable.Close friends or relatives frequently touch each other and this physical contact helps identifying the type of relationship they have.We tested whether a friendly touch and benefits elicit the emotion of gratitude given the close link between gratitude and communal relations.

In Study 1 we induced a communal mindset and manipulated friendly touch (vs.non-touch) and gtech brush bar benefit to female participants by a female confederate.We measured pre- and post-benefit gratitude, communal feelings, and liking towards the toucher, as well as general affect.

In Study 2 we manipulated mindset, friendly touch and benefit, and measured the same variables in female pairs (confederate and participants).In both studies the results showed a main effect of touch on pre-benefit gratitude: ps5 price new jersey participants who were touched by the confederate indicated more gratitude than those not touched.Moreover, benefit increased gratitude towards a confederate in the absence of touch, but not in the presence of touch.

Additionally, perceiving the relationship as communal, and not merely liking the confederate, or a positive mood mediated the link between touch and gratitude.The results further support a causal model where touch increases communal feelings, which in turn increase gratitude at the end of the interaction, after having received a benefit from the interaction partner.These results support a broader definition of gratitude as an emotion embodied in communal relationship cues.