Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Social touch plays an important role in emotional wellbeing, yet the effects of social isolation on touch behaviour remain unclear. Using the natural experimental context of the COVID pandemic, we examined how isolation, demographic factors, and individual differences in touch attitudes relate to touch (both approach and avoidance behaviours), the value of touch and mood. Despite narratives of “skin hunger”, isolation was associated with differences in patterns of touch behaviour but not with an increased desire for touch. Individuals practicing social distancing reported more touch from familiar others and less from strangers, suggesting a narrowing of tactile interactions within close social networks. Receipt of affective touch, rather than isolation status itself, was consistently associated with more positive mood, including lower loneliness, stress, sadness, and lethargy. Wanting more touch predicted higher stress and loneliness when controlling for touch frequency, indicating that unmet tactile desire may reflect negative affect. Finally, receiving touch more frequently was associated with lower imagined pleasantness of vicarious touch, whereas greater tactile desire predicted higher imagined pleasantness and vividness. Together, these findings highlight dissociable roles of experienced and desired touch in emotional wellbeing.</p>