Touch leaves women hot under the collar

Published on 30/05/2012 00:19

WOMEN get hotter when they feel a stranger’s touch – especially when the person making contact is a man, a study has shown.

Scottish scientists measured a small but significant increase in the facial temperature of female volunteers. A two-second touch on the face and chest, described as “high-intimate locations”, had a bigger effect than touching arms and palms. Physical contact also stimulated more warmth when it came from an experimenter of the opposite sex.

Writing in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, the scientists led by Amanda Hahn, from St Andrews University, said: “Slight increases in facial skin redness are perceived as more attractive, so it may be the case that temperature changes impact perceived attractiveness, although whether or not the skin temperature changes … lead to detectable changes in redness and attractiveness remains to be determined.”

The 16 participants, with an average age of 21, thought they were having their skin colour measured with a small flashing-light device. A thermal camera was used to take temperature readings from different areas of the face.