A very fascinating article in Monday’s New York Times Health Section discussed a number of studies done in the past several years about the communicative power of touch. Researchers have found that physical contact can often communicate just as much, if not more, than a gesture, word, or expression.
One of the studies that I found to be most interesting was the one led by Michael Kraus. Kraus and his co-researchers conducted a study on professional basketball teams. With only a few exceptions, the team of researchers found that the most successful NBA teams were also the touchiest ones. At the top of the touchy list were the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers and at the bottom were the Sacramento Kings and Charlotte Bobcats. The touchiest player was Kevin Garnett who was found to touch 4 guys within 600 milliseconds of shooting a free throw!
Another interesting study made a link between success in a relationship and the amount of touch given between the partners. This article is extremely fascinating and definitely worth a read!