In a recent study published in PLoS ONE , researchers investigated the impact of touch during digital communications. They evaluated the role of tactile emoticons in sensing social acceptance and assistance during social media conversations compared to (first experiment) or with (second experiment) traditional visual emoticons. Study: Tactile emoticons: Conveying social emotions and intentions with manual and robotic tactile feedback during social media communications .
Image Credit: Sichon/Shutterstock.com Touch is a crucial nonverbal technique for socio-affective communication; however, most digital platforms do not provide effective tactile signals. Traditional social media systems use vision and audition to share nonverbal material.
Social contact may transmit meaning, elicit emotions, and shape behavior. Healthy individuals can interpret emotions through touch, such as sympathy, whereas known senders express love, grief, and thanks. Even modest touches from strangers can convey closeness and social support without visual or aural cues.
The rising significance of affective computing has resulted in the creation of many applications and a reassessment of the benefits of touch. In the present study, researchers explored the impact of affective touch on social media conversations. They also investigated whether delivering visual and tactile emoticons using a soft robotic device may increase prosocial intent perception and physiological markers.
Experiment 1 emulated a social.
