There’s apparently three things the people of the world can all agree on when it comes to touch: Partners, yes! Strangers, nope! Family, weird.
A new study from Oxford University released Wednesday came to the obvious conclusion that whom we allow to touch us depends on our emotional connection and the relationship’s context.
Researchers showed 1,368 people from Finland, France, Italy, Russia and the UK a map of the human body, front and back, and had them indicate with coloring tools what body parts are fair game for friends, family, partners, acquaintances and nobodies to pat, shake or grope — and what is definitely off-limits.
“We may perceive a touch in a particular place from a relative or friend as a comforting gesture, while the same touch from a stranger would be entirely unwelcome,” professor Robin Dunbar, who led the study, told the UK’s Telegraph.
Although the results were close country to country, the Brits proved the stiffest when it comes to contact, while the Finns were the most free-wheeling, surprisingly beating out those romantic Italians.
