Social Touch and Prosociality in Daily Life: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Evidence, from laboratory experiments and field studies suggests that social touch may impact prosocial states and behavior, yet little is known about how touch operates in everyday life. In the present study we investigated within-person associations between social touch and prosociality using a multinational ecological momentary assessment design. A total of 318 participants reported their social interactions five times per day over a period of 14 days. Prosociality was assessed at three levels: momentary prosocial state, daily reflective prosociality, and prosocial behavior. Multilevel models tested whether daily touch frequency predicted evening prosociality while controlling for overall interaction time and touch partner category. Results showed that more frequent social touch across the day was reliably associated with higher momentary prosociality and more prosocial daily self-reflections. These associations were strongest on days characterized by lower overall interaction time, indicating a saturation-like pattern in which touch was most impactful when social contact time was low. Touch frequency did not predict enacted prosocial behavior. When considering partner type, the positive association between touch and prosocial state was most robust for interactions with closely trusted partners. For less familiar partners we found weaker or absent links to prosociality. These findings indicate that touch in daily life, especially with closely trusted partners, contributes to prosociality, even beyond the amount of time spent in social interaction.