This document discusses the power of touch in communication and its effects. It explores how touch can communicate emotions between people and help regulate social relationships. While touch can have positive impacts like soothing stress or strengthening bonds, it also carries risks of being misinterpreted and leading to issues like sexual harassment if not applied carefully based on context. The entire experience of being touched is influenced by one's social evaluation of the person doing the touching.

1. The power of touch:
Touch politics
Submitted to:
Prof. Anirudra Thapa
School of Management
Tribhuvan University
Submitted by:
Diksha Sigdel
Sarita Kumari Sah
MBA 11th Batch
In the partial fulfillment of the course
Business communication
Kirtipur, Lalitpur, Nepal
July, 2017

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Acknowledgement
We are very thankful to our professor, Mr. Anirudra Thapa for his guidance, inspiration and
support for this thesis.
Our heartfelt gratitude goes to our family, friends for their encouragement and moral support
during these periods of research.
Last but not the least we would also like to thank School of Management of Tribhuvan University
for encouraging and providing valuable opportunities and a platform for conducting this research
that will be very helpful and beneficial in the near future. We are only responsible for any errors
and deficiencies that may have remained in the research.
Diksha Sigdel
Sarita Kumari Sah
July 2017

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Contents
Acknowledgement .......................................................................................................................... 1
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 1:Introduction .............................................................................................................. 3
1.1 BACKGROUND...........................................................................................................................3
1.2 OBJECTIVE ................................................................................................................................5
1.3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................5
1.4 Limitations of the Study.............................................................................................................5
1.5Discussion......................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Literature review............................................................................................................................. 6
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 8
Reference ...................................................................................................................................... 11

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Abstract
This study talks about the positive and negative effect touch have in human being. there are plenty
of good reasons why people are inclined to keep their hands to themselves, especially in a society
as litigious as ours. But other research has revealed what we lose when we hold back too much
The benefits start from the moment we’re born. We also know that touch buildup corporative
relationship. In a competitive situation touch negatively affects corporative interaction between
the persons involved. The science of touch convincingly suggests that we’re wired to—we need
to—connect with other people on a basic physical level. To deny that is to deprive ourselves of
some of life’s greatest joys and deepest comforts. The entire experience of touch is affected by our
social evaluation of the person touching us.
CHAPTER 1:Introduction
1.1 BACKGROUND
We rarely experience moment of complete silence as we live in the world where silence is despise
by mankind and where the world is polluted by sounds and noises of all kind. We think silence is
the boundary as we are not saying anything and I am afraid it’s a yes. Silence is a boundary and
people think there is no way to break them but there is a way to break it. We can use nonverbal
communication to cross that boundary. This is the time when touch comes into the picture.

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Touch is a one of the nonverbal communication cue. Communication through use of touch is called
haptic communication. Haptic communication is the way in which people and other animal
communicate and interact via the sense of touch. As well as providing information about surfaces
and textures, touch, or the haptic sense, is a component of communication in interpersonal
relationships that is nonverbal and non-visual.
Touch can be categorized in terms of meanings as positive, playful, control, ritualistic, task related
or unintentional. It can be both sexual and platonic (such as hugging or tickling). Touch is first
thing sensory wise, non-verbal wise that we ever experience in our life. Touch is earliest sense to
develop in the fetus. As newborns they see and hear poorly but cling strongly to their mothers. It’s
because the sense of touch is highly developed in newborns. We began receving tactile signals
even before birth as the vibraton of our mothers heartbeat is amplified by amniotic fluid. No
wonder then that touch plays a critical role in parent child relationship from the start.
We are never touched as much as when we are children which is why our comfort level with
physical contact, and with physical closeness in general develops. As we grow up we become more
and more conscious about the different types of touch and interpret each one of them. “ this is a
touch phobic society. We are not used to touching strangers or even our friends, necessarily”
DePauw University psychologist Matthew Hertenstein. When we are being touched by another
person, our brain is not set up to give us the objective qualities of that touch. The entire experience
is affected by our social evaluation of the person touching us.if touch is a language it seems we
instinctively know how to use it but apparently it is a skill we take for granted and this is the reason
why we misinterpret touch. There are different kind of touch, a pat on the back is a way of showing
sympathy, or a act of comfort. A hug shows greeting, a request for intimacy, or a gesture that
denotes comfort. In a cross sex relationship in workplace face touch is taken to be inappropriate
and sexual harassing. Arm around the waist is also rated as showing relatively high level of
attraction and flirtation as well aws inappropriateness and harassment. No touch and hand shake
conveys most formality.
This study help us learn the language of touch. How people use touch to express their positive and
negative emotion. And how touch is affecting the interpersonal communication.

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1.2 OBJECTIVE
 To know the extent and effect of touch through secondary research
 To understand how different groups of people in different places perceive touch, how they
deal with it
 To understand the value of touch and importance of it in our life.
 To understand the perception of touch that people have.
 To know the consequences when we become touch conscious.
1.3 Methodology
We took secondary data from various sources for preparing this report.Secondary data on which
the study is based includes:
• Review of websites, search engines and web directories
• Review of different books, article and journals
1.4 Limitations of the Study
It has some limitations.
 Out of the large number of sources from which data could have been collected, our
research was based on articles and journals available in secondary sources
 Our knowledge was based on the limited area.
 There can be judgmental biases while analyzing and interpreting the data.

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Literature review
Human are social animal we try desperately to communicate with each other effectively. One of
the most underrated tools in our talking toolkit is a nonverbal communication peculiar touching.
Some of the psychological research shows that even a fleeting forms of touch may have a powerful
impact on our emotional and social functioning. Given its significant beneficial effect, touch can
be valued as a therapeutic or health promoting tool.
Over the centuries, various form of interpersonal language has become less and less common,
squelched under an onslaught of changing cultural values that we have and new technology. We
increasingly view touch as unhygienic and even invasive, as in the case of sexual harassment,for
example. (Mandy & Sander, 2013).
Given that interpersonal touch is increasingly becoming a scarce commodity,it is important to ask
how touch influence our lives. Why is touching and being touched by other so important to us?
New research suggests that even fleeting forms of touch may have a powerful impact on our
emotional and social functioning.
For instance, people can communicate distinct emotions such as anger or sadness through touch.
Moreover, people who are touched briefly on the arm or shoulder are more likely to comply with
requests such as volunteering for charity activities. These findings could have far-ranging
implications for the role of touch in everyday life and point to important applications in therapy
and virtual communication.
Whether we get a friendly slap on the back, a sensual caress, or a loving kiss --interpersonal touch
has a powerful impact on our emotions. In fact, our skin contains receptors that directly elicit
emotional responses, through stimulation of erogenous zones or nerve endings that respond to pain
(Auvraj, Myin, & spence, february 2010)and (Hertenstein & Campos, 2001) Furthermore, research
by Matthew Hertenstein, director of the Touch and Emotion Lab at DePauw University, has shown
that touch may communicate distinct emotions (Hertenstein, Keltner, Betsy, Bulleit, & Joskolka,
2006).Hertenstein and his associates asked pairs of participants to sit at a table with a curtain
between them, so that they were unable to see one another. One of the participants, the encoder,

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was asked to communicate distinct emotions (e.g. anger, disgust, fear, sympathy) by touching the
other person’s arm. The person being touched, the decoder, was asked to identify the
communicated emotion from a number of response options. Although they could neither see nor
talk to each other, the participants were able to encode and decode distinct emotions such as anger,
fear and disgust at above-chance levels.
Beyond regulating our emotions, interpersonal touch may also regulate our social relationships.
April Crusco of the University of Mississippi and Christopher Wetzel of Rhodes College (1984)
conducted a famous test of this idea, in which they examined the effects of touch on tipping
behavior. They conducted the research among diners of two restaurants in a small college town in
the American south, where one of three waitresses served the diners. After a waitress collected a
diner's money, she went to get change (in the early 1980s, most people presumably paid in cash).
At this point, the researchers instructed the waitresses to touch the diners briefly on the shoulder
or the palm of the hand, or to not touch the diners at all. The results showed that diners who were
touched by the waitress left between 18% and 36% more tips than diners who were not touched, a
pronounced difference that was statistically reliable. (Mandy & Sander, 2013)
Still, outside of close relationships, the consequences of sending the wrong message also increase.
"Touchy people are taking some risk that they might be perceived as being over-the-top or
harassing," says Andersen. "Physical contact can be creepy; it can be threatening." Context
matters, which is why we have rules about whom we can touch, where, and when. "Generally,
from the shoulder down to the hand are the only acceptable areas for touch," at least between casual
acquaintances, according to Andersen. "The back is very low in nerve endings, so that's OK too."
says San Diego State University School of Communication emeritus professor Peter Andersen,
author of Nonverbal Communication: Forms and Functions. Of course, there are other contextual
considerations as well. Different cultures and individuals have different tolerance levels for touch.
Same-sex and opposite-sex touches have different implications. Then there's the quality of the
touch, the duration, the intensity, the circumstances. "It's a complex matrix," Andersen says. A
quick touch and release—like a tap on a cubicle mate's shoulder to get her attention—no problem.

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But a stroke on the shoulder could be easily misinterpreted. ("Most cases of sexual harassment
involve stroking touches," notes Andersen.)
A touch will naturally seem more intimate if it is accompanied by other signals, such as a prolonged
gaze, or if it is held an instant too long. Meanwhile, a squeeze on the arm could be a sign of
sympathy or support, but if it doesn't end quickly and is accompanied by intense eye contact, it
can come across as a squeeze of aggression. Environment changes things too: On the playing field,
a man might feel comfortable giving his teammate a pat on the butt for a job well done, but that
congratulatory gesture wouldn't do too well in the office. (Chillot, march 11,2013)
In 2008, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) conducted a survey to
address this issue. 54% (272) had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment. Many
cases has been register, some which are actually true and some based on mere misunderstanding.

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Discussion
Everyone possesses a wealth of knowledge, belief and experience regarding non-verbal
communication. There are three aspects of nonverbal communication:
Sending of nonverbal message
Receiving of nonverbal message
Complex interplay between the first two
Sender send message with a goal that other person understand a particular message. Sometimes
we succeed and sometimes we don’t. This is because the message is unclear, contradictory and
ambiguous. A person should have a proper communication skill because many a time the transfer
message can be negatively perceived. When a person use touch in communication, it has both
positive and negative effect. Touch is regarded as therapeutic or health promoting tool which
provide comforting effect to human. Soft touch does not always have a comforting effect, the cases
of sexual harassment through touch mainly occur in workplace. Female’s light, comforting pat
on the shoulder increased feelings of security. However, this calming effect did not occur
when individuals were touched by a male and was weaker when the touch consisted of a
handshake. This finding suggests that gentle touch by non-threatening individuals is most
likely to have beneficial effects. (Mandy & Sander, 2013)
In Nepal, There were differences in perception between men and women as most of the men
said that sexual harassment is an issue of power relations. Men appear to take people’s
behavior more sexually than women. People most often find it uncomfortable to discuss a
subject like this. Most of the time, serious offences alone are regarded as sexual harassment,
such as forcing someone to have sexual intercourse or touching the body with sexual
intention. Sexual harassment may start with even a handshake. An absence of sharp
demarcation of behaviors that constitute sexual harassment further creates a state of
confusion. Because of the increasing number of workplace harassment people tend to avoide
touching one another. Touch avoidance was found to be linearly related to the amount of
touch displayed with the low touch avoider touching the most and high touch avoider touching
the least.

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Conclusion
Touch is valued as therapeutic or health promoting tool which help in reducing stress. A soothing
effect of touch from romantic partner has a calming effect. It also has a comforting effect from a
non-romantic partners and even from a pet. It help to know and communicate distant emotion of
person such as anger, sadness, fear etc. . . Touch help regulate our social relationship, it is a key
element of a communal sharing relationship, a relationship that occurs in all cultures between
mothers and their children(mother touch to foster more secure attachment in low birth weight
infant) , and among members of a group with a shared identity. When people engage in communal
sharing, they implicitly assume that their bodies share a common substance, which could be real,
imagined, or implied. Interpersonal touch (but also other activities like joint eating or dancing)
indicates the presence of a communal sharing relationship by referring to the sharing of a common
substance.

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Reference
Auvraj, M., Myin, E., & spence, c. (february 2010). The sensory-discriminative and affective-
motivational aspects of pain. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 214-223.
Chillot, R. (march 11,2013). The Power of Touch. psychology.
Hertenstein, M. J., & Campos, J. J. (2001). Emotion Regulation Via Maternal Touch. infancy.
Hertenstein, M. J., Keltner, D., Betsy, A., Bulleit, B. A., & Joskolka, A. R. (2006). Touch
communicaates distinct emotions,. EMOTION 6,NO 3, 528.
kaufman, D., & Mahoney, J. M. (july 1999). the effect of waitresses touch on alcohol consumption
in dyads. research gate.
Levav, J., & Argo, J. J. (2010). physical contact and financial risk taking. sage journals.
Mandy, T. A., & Sander, k. (2013). That human touch that means so much: Exploring the tactile
dimension of social life. the inquisitive mind.

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