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.