An arm around your shoulders, a warm hug, a hand intertwined in yours, and a kiss on the lips. These are all types of affectionate touching that can feel wonderful, especially with a significant other.
Luckily, you have an even better excuse to be affectionate not just while you’re alone together, but in public. June 20 is National PDA Day.
Kory Floyd, a professor and associate director at Arizona State University’s Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, conducted research for the skin care company Nivea.
He specializes in the communication of affection, and he has been working with the company on research as part of their “Million Moments of Touch” campaign.
This campaign’s goal is to “get people to touch more,” Floyd said. National PDA Day was created as part of the campaign. He suggested it fall on June 20, since that is the first day of summer.
According to a press release from Nivea that includes Floyd’s research, summertime is when people are more affectionate with one another anyway. This could be due to more skin showing when it’s hotter out. Either way, it appears more dates and weddings occur during the summer months.
However, even with the likelihood of an increase in affection during the summer, we’re still not showing our love enough in such a beneficial way as touch.
“It's a fact that fast-paced, 21st century living has affected our relationships: we text more than we hug,” according to the press release.
“We video chat more than we hold hands. We touch our phones more than we touch each other. In fact, Americans currently suffer from ‘skin hunger’ – a desire for more touch and human connection than they currently receive.”
So we know affection and touch are exceptional when they come from a loved one, and some of us already engage in public displays of affection, but what exact mental health benefits do touch and affection have?
"Touch is truly a powerful force; it is the first of our senses to develop and it is the only one that our bodies cannot survive without," Floyd said in the press release.