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- Sorokowska, Agnieszka, et al.
(författare)
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Affective Interpersonal Touch in Close Relationships : A Cross-Cultural Perspective
- 2021
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Ingår i: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. - : Sage Publications. - 0146-1672 .- 1552-7433. ; 47:12, s. 1705-1721
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.
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- Tognetti, Arnaud, et al.
(författare)
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Olfactory Cues of Naturally Occurring Systemic Inflammation : A Pilot Study of Seasonal Allergy
- 2023
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Ingår i: Neuroimmunomodulation. - : S. Karger. - 1021-7401 .- 1423-0216. ; 30:1, s. 338-345
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: In an attempt to avoid contact with infectious individuals, humans likely respond to generalized rather than specific markers of disease. Humans may thus perceive a noninfectious individual as socially less attractive if they look (e.g., have facial discolouration), move (e.g., have a slower walking pace), or sound (e.g., sneeze) sick. This pilot study tested whether humans are averse to the body odour of noninfectious individuals with a low-grade systemic inflammation. Methods: We collected the axillary body odour of individuals with severe seasonal allergy (N = 14) and healthy controls (N = 10) during and outside the allergy season and measured serum levels of two inflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-5). Independent participants (N = 67) then sampled and rated these odours on intensity and pleasantness. Results: While individuals with seasonal allergy had nominally more unpleasant and intense body odours during the allergy season, relative to outside the allergy season and to healthy controls, these effects were not significant. When examining immune markers, the change in perceived pleasantness of an individual’s body odour (from out-to-inside pollen season) was significantly related to the change in their interleukin-5 levels but not to tumour necrosis factor-α. Discussion: Our findings tentatively suggest that the human olfactory system could be sensitive to inflammation as present in a noncommunicable condition. Larger replications are required to determine the role of olfaction in the perception of infectious and noninfectious (e.g., chronic diseases) conditions.
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