Touch Matters: Handshakes, Hugs, and the New Science on How Touch Can Enhance Your Well-Being

A fascinating scientific and sociological exploration of our most underappreciated sense.

Every day, we use our sense of touch to navigate the world. A handshake, a pat on the shoulder, a hug—all are essential touches that make up our daily lives. In Touch Matters, social neuroscientist Michael Banissy brings together diverse scientific insights from the Touch Test—the world’s largest contemporary survey on touch, with 40,000 participants from 112 countries.

Professor Banissy unfolds the research behind why touch is essential to our well-being, combining expert findings with notable touch points in pop culture to explore the role it plays in our physical and digital social life, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and more. Learn why a hugged person is a happier person, why teams who high-five each other win more games, and how a handshake makes you more likely to tell the truth. Banissy offers a groundbreaking and surprising new perspective on touch, with guidance on how to enhance your level of touch for a happier, healthier life, exploring topics including:

• Your “touch personality”
• How touch defines our relationships and our self-esteem
• The impact of touch on our physical and mental health
• Cultural distinctions around touch and how to navigate them
• Solutions to the “touch hunger” that has become a modern epidemic

 
Touch Matters is a fascinating window into one of our most important and basic senses—and how to harness its power.

FEATURES ORIGINAL RESEARCH FROM "THE TOUCH TEST": Touch Matters is based on one of Banissy's most recent projects—the Touch Test—a science and broadcast collaboration with the BBC and Wellcome Collection. This project explored attitudes and experiences of touch via the world's largest contemporary survey on the topic, public exhibitions, and a series of broadcast programs focused on the topic of touch that received worldwide attention. The project had approximately 40,000 participants from 112 countries.

OFFERS GUIDANCE ON COMMUNICATING AND CONNECTING IN OUR DAILY AND PROFESSIONAL LIVES: As we return to office work and live in a world where touch has become loaded with meaning, this book will help people understand how important touch is and the role it plays in every aspect of our lives, from relationships and friendships to the workplace and team activities and much more.

Perfect for:

• Readers interested in science, psychology, and self-help
• Fans of James Nestor's Breath, Marc Brackett's Permission to Feel, Bill Bryson's The Body, Mark Miodownik's Stuff Matters
• Adults and parents of children resuming in-person activities including going back to the office, returning to school, traveling, and socializing
• Those interested in learning more about the science of touch, touch starvation, and how important touch is to child/human development
• People struggling with depression or anxiety around physical contact

Michael Banissy is an award-winning Professor in Social Neuroscience and Science Communicator. He has received multiple prizes for his contributions to Psychological Science, including a medal from the British Psychological Society for outstanding contributions to psychology. He resides in England.