“Just a pat on the back or a reassuring touch on the arm can be a powerful tool to influence behavior, according to new research. And it could determine whether someone invests in a risky financial venture or decides to play it safe. “It’s a very effective way of suddenly influencing people’s behavior without them realizing they are being influenced,” said Jonathan Levav, a professor of business and marketing at Columbia University in New York. “If you’re a doctor, or are in sales, this is a form of communication you might want to keep in mind,” he added in an interview.
Levav ‘s findings, which are reported in the journal Psychological Science, are based on a series of experiments involving touch. In one study 67 men and women were asked to choose between a cash payoff and a risky gamble and then touched on the shoulder and back by male and female researchers. Levav and his co-author Jennifer Argo, of the University of Alberta in Canada, found that both sexes were more likely to select gambles with no guarantees of a payoff if they had been made to feel more comfortable, especially if touched by a woman.
In another experiment, 105 people were asked to allocate their money between two investments — a bond that delivered a four percent yearly return or a risky deal with no guaranteed return. Again, people who were lightly touched on the shoulder by a woman were more likely to select the option with the most risk. Levav and Argo suggested that the connection between comfort and risk goes back to our earliest recollections of human bonding. “A simple pat on the back of the shoulder by a female in a way that connotes support may evoke feelings that are similar to the sense of security afforded by a mother’s comforting touch in infancy,” they wrote in the study.”
Read more at Yahoo News
Well that’s one way of looking at it, or it could be when in a womans pressence men are more likey to make the risky choice in order to look stronger in the eyes of a possible mate, from an evolutionary perspective ofcourse.
I am gonna touch EVERYONE
Haha, Vicky beat me to it.
but that’s what we count on!
Surprising…. that only now somebody made a study about it. As a species in which it is mother’s role to introduce young ones into rules and hazards of the world, it is only to be expected that a female touch would carry this “it’s OK, go ahead” quality to it.
I hate personal space invaders!
Possibly Bad Astrologer, but how does that explain the male AND female response? Unless we\’re assuming all of the women are gay of course…
Oh yes, the time comes to mind when my female doctor recently did something as simple as touch me on the knee. It does go a long way toward increasing comfort. Of course, any kind of physical touch (even the most non-intimate) is only appropriate in certain contexts. But I suppose as females, we probably still have more latitude in that domain to use physical touch than males do.
Doesn’t Derren do this quite a bit?
Have a look at a book called INFLUENCE by Robert Cialdini. It includes this topic and many others on the compelling subject of social influence. The book is a MUST for anyone interested in the subject – its not just random ideas as its essentially a compilation and synthesis of other people’s detailed research. Its brilliant.
At first i thought what about male’s touch .. must have some influence as well I’d say … on second thought … yes, can’t see why that can not be the same with male’s influence on male/female. I sense a lot of crap in this type of studies. It’s kinda shallow, and it overlooks human’s nature .. Most humans are pretty aware when someone is in his/her structures .. know when there is an influence from the outside .. Those scientists … don’t they ever communicate on a more normal level anymore nowadays? They all sound so primal. Ehehe .. I’d say .. get modern men. Get real.
We at times choose to have someone’s influence in ourselves to get ourselves back to another self. At times we might not be able to see so well .. as we are being influenced a bit too much by our self.
59 seconds:)
I thought this was old news, my partner is all into this ‘self-help’ and influencing other people and he’s got loads of old books saying exactly this.
Does it help if the female is extraordinarily attractive?
Oh I’ll just say something dirty…