According to the literature studies and exploratory study, it was found that touching behavior has a relationship with the anxiety. Although the studies on the different characteristics of tactile sense have been carried out, the relationship between tactile sense and the anxiety has not been deeply studied. From the experiment, we were able to find out that there are preferred properties of touch that are useful in alleviating the anxiety.
Introduction
From previous studies we could see that people try to show new behavior when they feel the fear. Rank the stimuli based on the most helpful stimulus to relieve anxiety to the least helpful. Using the stimuli preference bar chart, we can instinctively notice which stimuli are more or less preferred by people to reduce anxiety.
Theoratical Foundation
Literature Studies
- Stress reduced by Tactile Touch
- Physical Interaction from a Product giving a Personality
- Relieving Stress and Pain by Touch
- Tactile Behavior
- Haptic Exploratory Procedure
Lateral movement EP' is done to explore the surface of an object by rubbing the outside or inside of an object with his fingers and to gain a knowledge of a texture of an object. Pressure EP' is performed by exerting a force or torque on an object with his fingers or hands; it is done to obtain a knowledge of the hardness of an object. Part movement EP' is literally a part movement procedure; it is done to explore a part of an object, but this EP is only done when a moving part exists (Klatzky, 1985).
Direction of the Research
Exploratory Study
Both sexes mostly experienced the anxiety when they have to stand in front of numbers of people and when they encounter a strange place or a strange person. As we can see from Figure 6, the rubbing of his fingers or hands marked the highest number that participants do during the moment of anxiety. From this bar graph, we can clearly see that participants tend to use their hands when they feel the anxiety.
Rubbing fingers or hands and touching a tangible object were both the highest numbers mentioned from both sexes, but male participants tended to touch a tangible object more than female participants. Meanwhile, mental rest, such as trying to control the mind, was mentioned more by female participants. Male participants were more likely to engage in physical behaviors such as doing nothing, drinking water, chewing nails, and more.
Overall, participants in both sexes are highly likely to use their hands at the moment of anxiety. From this study, we could find that using hands is the natural behavior that people tend to do when they face the anxiety. We can also find that there is a little difference between genders, such as male participants tend to do more physical actions when they feel the anxiety, but female participants tend to deal more mentally with the anxiety.
Based on this research study and the literature study, taking into account the natural behavior during hand use anxiety and the defined knowledge about touch sensations that have different differences, an experiment was planned to discover deeper findings about the relationship between the properties of hand touch sensations and negative emotions in case of anxiety.
Research Method
Experimental Stimuli
- Selecting variables
- Prototyping
Finger or hand rubbing matches the lateral movement associated with patting and rubbing behavior. Tapping on an object corresponded well with pressure, which is associated with tapping, tapping, squeezing, and pushing behaviors. The case investigating the loudness trait was removed because it did not match well with any of the behaviors that people attempt in a moment of anxiety.
So three properties, such as texture, hardness and weight, were used to build the stimuli for the experiment. The experiment was conducted to find out whether touch and fear are related and, if so, how each feature of touch responds to the fear emotion. The difference level was set as an extreme opposite scale because this study aimed to find out which trait is effective to respond to the anxiety, but not to find out how much weight or hardness was best to control the anxiety .
Hardness level is divided into two different levels by using a silicon with hardness level 7 for soft and soft feeling and hardness level 24 covering 3D printed sphere for hard and solid feeling. For the weight difference, four 22.5g weights, totaling 90g, were placed inside the stimuli for the heavy weight feeling. Total weight for the heavyweight tier was 170g±10g which includes the weight of 3D printed ball frame, silicon, fabric and iron weights.
Total weight for the lightweight level was 60g±10g, which includes the weight of 3D printed ball frame, silicon and fabric.
User study
- Material
- Participants
- Procedure
To test the effectiveness of the selected video clip with the eight stimuli, pilot testing was performed. Selected video clip was shown to the participants and they played around with the stimuli at the same time. Stimuli stimulated human sense of touch well, but the video clip shown to elicit the anxiety did not work well enough.
To make a better experimental setting, video clips to provoke the anxiety had to be changed. As Figure 13 shows, two conditions were used to find a better video clip to cause the anxiety. Video clips were tested for anxiety in three participants at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology.
All three contestants chose the edited video clip of 'US (2019)' and said that it was effective enough to make them feel the anxiety while watching the clip. When participants were set to begin the experiment, the light was turned off to reinforce the anxiety and video footage was played. While participants watched the video clip, they were asked to play around with the eight stimuli to find out which stimulus was helpful in alleviating the anxiety or not (figure 15).
They noticed that they can stop the video clip whenever the video clip makes them anxious.
Data analysis
Results
Stimuli preference
Property preference
- Texture property
- Hardness property
- Weight property
- Combination of properties
Overall rough texture had a significant number of negative feedback and smooth texture received positive feedback. This was the main reason for 'rough texture with hard hardness and heavy weight' and 'rough texture with hard. When combining soft hardness and coarse texture, the majority of male participants noted that positive feedback from the soft hardness dominated other attributes (table 2).
They felt a negative feedback from rough texture, but the soft hardness overpowered other properties and canceled out the negative feedback from rough texture and weight properties. Meanwhile, the majority of female participants expressed negative feeling for the combination of soft hardness and rough texture (table 2). They noted that negative feeling of rough texture dominates other characteristics, so overall feedback was negative, even the soft hardness gave a positive feeling.
Both genders commented that the combination of soft hardness and smooth texture felt like human skin (Table 2). The combination of light weight and rough texture doubled the negative feeling in participants of both genders (Table 3). However, only female participants reported that the rough texture made them feel like they were holding something in their hand, which overrode other features such as the negative feeling of light weight.
The combination of light weight with soft hardness and smooth texture received positive comments from both sexes (table 3).
Tactile behavior
Female participants mentioned that it felt like they were touching an object known as a pillow and it increased a sense of comfort. Only among the female participants did the harshness of the stimuli lead them to think that the mildness of the stimuli was stiffer when heavy weight and mild firmness were combined (table 4). Soft hardness received a positive response when combined with light weight from them, however softness came out stiffer when combined with heavy weight causing the stimuli to receive a negative response overall.
On the other hand, the same combination produced some positive feedback, such as 'it felt like holding the hand of a friend or someone to hang on to'. The combination of light weight and stiffness had some negative comments that gave a feeling of emptiness which seemed pointless to carry it (table 4).
Discussion
- The importance of touch experience by hands in anxiety
- Tactile properties and gender difference in alleviating anxiety
- Tactile behavior coping with anxiety
- Design implication
- Limitations and further study
Reactions often mentioned by female participants were such as "the repulsion of the rough structure made me not consider other properties". It can be observed that two levels of weight properties were comparatively equally distributed between the top and bottom ranks. The coexistence of the positive and negative feeling of the property gave the participants ambiguous thoughts and made them consider the feature of the weight in the back: “the weight seemed appropriate to me, but later it did not.
Of both sexes of the participants, the pressing and rubbing of the stimuli were mostly seen. Since feeling the texture is the very first step in coming into contact with the stimuli, just placing their hand on top of the stimuli was the first act like perceiving them. In many cases, the rubbing of the surface of the stimuli was carried out at the same time as the pressing of the stimuli.
Shaking, tapping, pushing, padding were also the types of the tactile behavior, but they were hardly seen from the participants to act. Lifting was the third highest seen behavior from the participants to act, but it was usually done to feel the weight of the stimuli. After understanding the weight of the stimuli, lifting was hardly seen, but pinching and rubbing were mostly performed to investigate the feedbacks of the stimuli.
The preferred property combination can also be applied to a pointer to help ease anxiety as the presenter mostly holds the pointer on hand and can benefit from the product by using it in a natural action.
Conclusion
