Exploring the Emotional Responses to the Sounds of Organic Affective Touch

Haptic cues are crucial in the elicitation of emotions, as affective touch research has revealed. However, our increasingly digital lives have eroded access to these cues, having detrimental effects. Thus, the investigation of alternative ways to elicit equivalent emotional responses to those of affective touch merits attention. In the present study, two online experiments examining the emotional responses to sounds of organic affective touch were conducted. In Experiment 1, the emotional responses to a series of organic affective touch sounds, compared to object-based sounds, were evaluated. In Experiment 2, the influence of manipulating the stated nature of the sounds, as either affective touch or object-based, on the emotional responses to the sounds was investigated. The results revealed different patterns in the emotional responses to the affective touch sounds compared to the object-based ones, although participants could not confidently identify affective touch. Furthermore, explicitly stating that the sounds involved object-based interactions increased the evoked valence of two specific object-based sounds. These findings highlight the importance of meaning in affective touch and reveal the high complexity of the sonification of touch. This study paves the way for future research on the emotions of auditory affective touch.