Kronrod A, Ackerman JM. I'm so touched! Self-touch increases attitude extremity via self-focused attention.
Acta Psychol (Amst) 2019;
195:12-21. [PMID:
30831387 DOI:
10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.02.005]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2018] [Revised: 02/15/2019] [Accepted: 02/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In everyday life, people often engage in behaviors like chin touching, hand clasping, and arm crossing. Such self-touching behaviors have been found to emerge under emotional stress and while performing tasks requiring concentration and focus. In contrast to work examining antecedents of self-touch, the current research experimentally investigates the causal outcomes of self-touch, specifically its influence on evaluative cognitions such as attitudes toward external objects and events. Four studies support the prediction that both instructed and spontaneous self-touch enhance focus on the self, resulting in greater attitude extremity toward evaluated targets. A last study demonstrates that people do not have a fully accurate understanding of the influence of self-touch on consequential outcomes such as self-focus and attitude extremity. Thus, this common behavior may incidentally influence a wide variety of judgments.
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