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.

Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi Pakistan

Bahria University Islamabad Pakistan

Center for Humans and Machines Max Planck Institute for Human Development Germany

Center for Social and Psychological Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Slovakia

Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing China

Comenius University Slovakia

Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra Slovakia

Department of Psychology Ankara University Turkey

DHA Suffa University Karachi Pakistan

Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Morelia Mexico

Faculty of Arts Palacky University in Olomouc Czech Republic

Franklin and Marshall College USA

Gulu University Uganda

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology Moscow Russia

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa Portugal

Islamabad Model College for Boys Islamabad Pakistan

Istanbul University Turkey

Izmir University of Economics Turkey

K Bendukidze Free University Tbilisi GA USA

Kyung Hee University Seoul Republic of Korea

Lviv State University of Internal Affairs Ukraine

Macquarie University Sydney New South Wales Australia

Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim Norway

NUR International University Pakistan

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Santiago Chile

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Lima Peru

Slovak Academy of Sciences Slovakia

Stockholm University Sweden

SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities Wroclaw Poland

Taste and Smell Centre Technische Universität Dresden Germany

The Australian National University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Sha Tin Hong Kong

The University of Texas at Austin USA

THETA Uganda Kampala Uganda

TU Dresden Dresden Germany

UNATC CINETIc Bucharest Romania

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica San José Costa Rica

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano Italy

Université catholique de Louvain Louvain la Neuve Belgium

University of Algiers Algeria

University of British Columbia Canada

University of California Santa Barbara USA

University of Delhi India

University of Granada Spain

University of Havana Cuba

University of Karachi Pakistan

University of Ljubljana Slovenia

University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

University of Maribor Slovenia

University of Monterrey San Pedro Garza Garcia Mexico

University of Nigeria Nsukka Nigeria

University of Niš Serbia

University of Pécs Hungary

University of Prof Dr Moestopo Jakarta Indonesia

University of São Paulo Brazil

University of Tartu Estonia

University of the Punjab Lahore Pakistan

University of Vienna Austria

University of Wroclaw Wroclaw Poland

University of Zagreb Croatia

University Setif Algeria

Vilnius University Lithuania

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands

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