touch is ten times stronger than verbal or emotional contact, and it affects damned near everything we do. some 1.6 m² of skin surround an adult body, making skin the largest sense organ. because it cannot be 'shut off', it is in a constant state of readiness to receive messages. if we did not like the feel of touching and patting one another we would not have had sex and so, we did not have produced offspring. we always knew that, but we never thought of it as a biological basis.

the genetic basis for touch effects _schanberg, s.

foto: emilie bjork