Perceived Threat, Peripersonal Space and Touch

The space we keep between ourselves and others determines whether we engage in close shared experiences but also allows us to distance ourselves for safety. Focusing primarily on the latter, previous studies have identified a link between interpersonal distance and perceived threat, perceptual discrimination including pain perception as well as how we move and behave as a result. Although interpersonal distance has been studied in a range of contexts, a mechanistic way of how such spatial behaviour might change how we perceive affective touch has yet to be investigated. Here we probe the effect of perceived threat of COVID-19 on interpersonal distance preferences and perceived pleasantness of vicarious affective touch. Our results demonstrate that increased perceived threat from COVID-19 is associated with larger boundaries of interpersonal distance. Moreover, we show a positive association between perceived threat and pleasantness of touch coming from a member of the household, but no association with outsider touch. Importantly, rather than focusing on the purely “positive” and prosocial functions of affective touch, these results bolster a novel perspective that socially-relevant cues guide both approach and avoidance behaviours. The data was collected between 12.2020 and 03.2021 using the online platform Gorilla Experiment Builder. It includes demographic data, scores from the COVID-19 Threat Questionnaire (Conway et al., 2020), scores from the Fear of Interpersonal Touch Questionnaire adapted from Trotter et al. (2018), ratings of vicarious touch, and the response times from the Peripersonal Space Task where participants listened to six audio clips consisting of the sound of footsteps approaching them from the front. Half of the trials measure the response time for interpersonal comfort space, and the other reaching space. The key in included in the dataset.人与人之间维持的空间距离，既决定了我们能否开展亲密的共享社交体验，也为我们提供了安全的社交疏离空间。过往研究多聚焦于后者，已证实人际距离与感知威胁、包括痛觉在内的知觉辨别能力，以及由此产生的动作与行为模式之间存在显著关联。尽管已有诸多研究在不同场景下探讨了人际距离，但此类空间行为如何改变我们对情感性触摸（affective touch）的知觉，其背后的机制仍有待探究。本研究旨在探究新冠疫情（COVID-19）感知威胁对人际距离偏好，以及替代性情感性触摸愉悦感评分的影响。研究结果显示，个体对新冠疫情的感知威胁程度越高，其人际距离边界越宽泛。此外，我们发现感知威胁程度与家庭成员带来的触摸愉悦感呈显著正相关，但与非家庭成员的触摸愉悦感无显著关联。值得注意的是，本研究并未仅聚焦于情感性触摸纯粹的"积极"和亲社会功能，而是为"社会相关线索可同时引导趋近与回避行为"这一新视角提供了实证支撑。本数据集于2020年12月至2021年3月期间，通过在线实验平台Gorilla Experiment Builder完成数据收集。数据集包含人口统计学数据、新冠威胁问卷（COVID-19 Threat Questionnaire, Conway et al., 2020）得分、改编自Trotter等人（2018）的人际触摸恐惧问卷（Fear of Interpersonal Touch Questionnaire）得分、替代性触摸愉悦感评分，以及个人空间任务（Peripersonal Space Task）的反应时数据：该任务中参与者需聆听6段来自前方逐渐靠近的脚步声音频，其中一半试次用于测量人际舒适空间的反应时，另一半则用于测量可达空间的反应时。数据集内附带实验关键说明文件。