The effects of haptic experience on interpersonal perception and self-perception

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that incidental physical experiences influence social perception and behavior. The present research examined how touching either a hard object or soft, i.e. haptic experience, can affect interpersonal perception and self-perception. Based on Harlow’s (1958) classical research along with more recent studies on social warmth and physical warmth, we hypothesized that there are connections between social warmth and soft versus hard haptic experience. Participants were 21 female undergraduates, who evaluated themselves on feminine positive traits, feminine negative traits, masculine positive traits, and masculine negative traits in advance. They were instructed to squeeze either a soft rubber ball or a hard wired ball while completing an interpersonal and self- perception tasks. Participants squeezing the soft rubber ball were more apt to rate a female stranger more favorably, and evaluated her as more positively feminine. These participants were also more likely to change their self-views toward more negatively masculine than those who squeezed the hard wired ball. These results suggested that effects of soft versus hard haptic experience on self-perception differ from interpersonal perception.