It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
Crash
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Civil inattention is defined as the polite way to manage interaction with strangers by not engaging in any interpersonal communication or needing to respond to a stranger’s touch. ~
Goffman uses an elevator study to explain this phenomenon.
You do not look, talk or touch to the person next to you.
It may be so crowded that you ‘touch’ another person, but you maintain an expressionless demeanor so not to affect those around you.
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A study of touch-deprived men revealed that when given the hypothetical choice between giving up their recreational drugs and alcohol and giving up sex and orgasm, almost all of them said they would give up sex and orgasm.
It seems that those who harbor these conflicts between a strong desire for touch and the confusing discomfort with it resolve the conflict by avoiding the difficulties and discomforts associated with touch and finding a replacement in the form of behaviors and chemicals, prescription and nonprescription.
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It is more acceptable for women to touch than men in social or friendship settings, possibly because of the innate nature of the person touching have dominance over who they are touching.
Whitcher and Fisher (1979) conducted a study to see whether therapeutic touch to reduce anxiety differed between the sexes.
A nurse was told to touch patients for one minute while the patients looked at a pamphlet during a routine preoperative procedure. Females reacted positively to the touch, males did not. It was surmised that males equated the touch to being treated as inferior or dependent.
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Public touch can serve as a ‘tie sign’ that shows others that your partner is “taken”.
When a couple is holding hands, putting their arms around each other, this is a ‘tie sign’ showing others that you are together. The use of ‘tie signs’ are used more often by couples in the dating and courtship stages than between their married counterparts.
Touching between married couples may help maintain good health.
In a study by University of Virginia psychologist Jim Coan, women under stress showed signs of immediate relief by merely holding their husband’s hand. This seemed to be effective when the woman was part of a satisfying marriage.
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Wikipedia
About Attachment Theory
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