Touch hunger

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Claudia Hammond explores our experience of touch hunger, and asks if we have enough touch in our lives. Covid-19 and social distancing have changed how most people feel about touch but even before the pandemic there was a concern about the decrease of touch in society. Claudia and Professor Michael Bannissy of Goldsmiths, University of London, discuss the results of the BBC Touch Test, an online questionnaire that was completed by around 40 000 people from 112 countries. Professor Tiffany Field, Director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and Merle Fairhurst, Professor of Biological Psychology at Bundeswehr University Munich, reveal their findings about the impact of touch hunger and how to overcome it. John grew up during the Second World War and endured a lack of touch in his childhood. He relates how in adult life he overcame this absence of touch and why touch remains so important to him. And left isolating in London during lock down, flatmates B and Z came up with a plan to stay healthy with a 6 o’clock hug. Hugging releases a mix of anti-stress chemicals that can lower the blood pressure, decrease anxiety and help sleep.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to introduce myself.
0:03.4	My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC commissioner for a load of sport
0:07.4	podcasts. I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with
0:10.7	leading journalists, experienced pundits and the biggest
0:13.2	sports stars. Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights
0:17.5	straight from the player's mouths. But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sporting world.
0:24.4	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection
0:28.7	to dedicated sports fans across the UK.
0:31.1	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:36.0	Hello, this is Claudia Hammond and in discovery on the BBC World Service over the next four
0:40.8	weeks we are looking at the anatomy of touch.
0:44.8	Touch is probably our first sense to develop when we're in the womb and yet in our
0:50.0	visual world it can get neglected.
0:53.0	Until now, where many of us haven't hugged our friends or relatives in months for fear of spreading
0:58.4	COVID-19.
1:00.3	Social distancing often means that people can't even hold the hand of a sick relative in hospital.
1:06.0	Some are feeling deprived of touch for the first time in their lives,
1:10.0	but others grew up in a world without affectionate cuddles or warm hugs.
1:15.0	I was brought up by my grandmother from the age of six weeks.
1:20.0	My mother literally dumped me in her lap and said she didn't want me. She was going off to earn her living and that was in 1941 January.
1:37.7	My grandparents loved me, I'm fairly sure of that,
1:42.0	but never once did they ever ever hug me.
	...

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