Transcript:

Scientists are discovering that when you touch someone, you communicate very specific emotions

such as sympathy, disgust, gratitude, or even love. The current issue of the scientific journal

Emotion features a series of studies about touch. Reporter Michelle Trudeau touched base with the

lead researcher.

Michelle Trudeau: Psychologist Matt Hertenstein from DePaul University in Green Castle, Indiana

decided to study touch while he was watching parents interacting with their babies - making faces and

cooing sounds, squeezing, stroking, nuzzling them.

Mr. Matt Hertenstein (DePaul University): And all of a sudden it struck me one day and I thought,

you know, I wonder if touch can communicate distinct emotions, much like the face and the voice.

Michelle Trudeau: Decades of research has been done on the face and the voice and the distinct

emotions that they communicate. But touch has been relatively neglected by researchers until

Hertenstein stepped in and began his experiments.

Mr. Matt Hertenstein: We invited two participants into the lab. And we put a curtain up between

those two people.

Michelle Trudeau: So they couldn't see or hear each other. One participant, the sender, was told to

try and communicate twelve different emotions, one by one, to the other participant, the receiver.

Mr. Matt Hertenstein: The receiver would put his or her arm underneath the curtain, on to the

sender's side.

Michelle Trudeau: The sender would then touch the receiver's forearm, trying to communicate the

specific emotion, such as envy, fear, love, embarrassment, anger, gratitude, pride, disgust. The

receiver had to then decide which emotion was being communicated.