AUTHOR=Huisman Gijs TITLE=An Interaction Theory Account of (Mediated) Social Touch JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.830193 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.830193 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=Research on mediated social touch (MST) has, either implicitly or explicitly, built on theoretical assumptions regarding social interactions that align with `theory theory' or `simulation theory' of social cognition. However, these approaches struggle to explain MST interactions that occur outside of a laboratory setting. I briefly discuss these approaches and will argue in favor of an alternative, `interaction theory' approach to the study of MST. I make three suggestions for future research to focus on.