Impressions of Hand Movements: Self-Touching and Gestures

Abstract

Two studies addressed the question of observers' impressions of physicians and patients who displayed self-touching, a behavior reported to indicate negative affect. In Study 1 self-touching was regarded as more Expressive and Warm, while control scenes were viewed as more Calm. The results of Study 2 showed that observers judged hand gestures most positively, followed by self-touching, and control scenes on Expressive, Sincere, Natural, and Warm. Control scenes were seen as most Calm. These findings confirm earlier results and represent a perspective on self-touching that has not been previously examined, the observer's viewpoint. It is the observer who tends to be most influenced by the display of self-touching. Discussion is focused on discrete and continuous self-touching, the effect of type and context of self-touching, and the need for considering other functions (i.e., serving information-processing demands) of self-touching than indicating states of anxiety, tension, or hostility.