Image Courtesy of Oxford University
If you plan to work in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, you’d better get used to being hugged and kissed, and doing the same in return. It’s a touchy-feely business, even among acquaintances, but this sort of tactile familiarity isn’t the norm everywhere.
People are very particular about where they do and don’t like to be touched, and who’s allowed to put a hand on what. Now, Oxford University has released the findings from the largest study ever conducted on physical contact, creating maps that show what parts of men’s and women’s bodies are acceptable for contact to lovers, friends, relatives and strangers.
As explained in an Oct. 26 article in the U.K. Telegraph, the map shows that the hands are the only part of the body that both men and women don’t mind sharing to some degree with everyone, even strangers. Although men are somewhat less protective of their genitals than women — not listing them as taboo with female friends, acquaintances and even strangers — when it gets to male strangers, both men and women list almost the whole body as off-limits, especially the part between the chest and the ankles (men want male strangers to stay away from their heads as well).