van Hattum Martijn T, Huisman Gijs, Toet Alexander, van Erp Jan B F
Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Human Factors, Soesterberg, Netherlands.
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2022 Feb 17;13:817787. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.817787. eCollection 2022.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research on mediated communication social touch. Previous studies indicated that mediated social touch (MST) can induce similar positive outcomes to interpersonal touch. However, studies investigating the user experience of MST technology predominantly involve brief experiments that are performed in well-controlled laboratory conditions. Hence, it is still unknown how MST affects the relationship and communication between physically separated partners in a romantic relationship, in a naturalistic setting and over a longer period of time. In a longitudinal explorative field study, the effects of MST on social connectedness and longing for touch among geographically separated romantic couples were investigated in a naturalistic setting. For 2 weeks, 17 couples used haptic bracelets, that were connected the internet, to exchange mediated squeeze-like touch signals. Before and after this period, they reported their feelings of social connectedness and longing for touch through questionnaires. The results show that the use of haptic bracelets (1) enhanced social connectedness among geographically separated couples but (2) did not affect their longing for touch. Interviews conducted at the end of the study were analyzed following the thematic analysis method to generate prominent themes and patterns in using MST technology among participant couples. Two main themes were generated that captured (a) the way the bracelets fostered a positive one-to-one connection between partners and (b) the way in which participants worked around their frustrations with the bracelets. Detailed findings and limitations of this longitudinal field study are further discussed, and suggestions are made for future research.
近年来，关于媒介传播中的社交触摸的研究显著增加。先前的研究表明，媒介社交触摸（MST）能引发与人际触摸相似的积极效果。然而，调查MST技术用户体验的研究主要涉及在严格控制的实验室条件下进行的简短实验。因此，在自然环境中且较长时间段内，MST如何影响恋爱关系中身体分离的伴侣之间的关系和沟通仍不明确。在一项纵向探索性实地研究中，在自然环境下调查了MST对地理上分离的恋爱情侣之间社交联结和触摸渴望的影响。在两周时间里，17对情侣使用与互联网相连的触觉手环来交换类似挤压的媒介触摸信号。在此期间前后，他们通过问卷调查汇报了自己的社交联结感和触摸渴望。结果显示，使用触觉手环（1）增强了地理上分离的情侣之间的社交联结，但（2）并未影响他们对触摸的渴望。研究结束时进行的访谈采用主题分析法进行分析，以找出参与情侣使用MST技术时的突出主题和模式。生成了两个主要主题，分别是（a）手环促进伴侣之间积极一对一联结的方式，以及（b）参与者应对使用手环时遇到的挫折的方式。本文进一步讨论了这项纵向实地研究的详细发现和局限性，并对未来研究提出了建议。
