Touching Boosts Compliance – Improving Medical Compliance Using Nonverbal Communication
Christopher Philip
Research conducted by a team out of France has found empirical, real world evidence that touch significantly boosts compliance.
In the study, the researchers had medical practitioners either touch, or not touch, the forearms of patients suffering from mild pharyngitis.
The touch only lasted 1-2 seconds as the doctor instructed the patients to use antibiotic medication as prescribed.
One week later, the patients were contacted by phone at their residence to verify the number of pills they had taken as well as to evaluate their impressions of the practitioner.
Results showed that touch increased medication adherence in both male and female patients. Overall though, women tended to comply more than men. Additionally, touching led to a greater perception of concern for the patients and the practitioners also received a boost in their ratings of competency.
Interestingly, however, despite the importance of taking all 16 pills, none had actually done so. This raises an important issue as it shows that despite best attempts, none of the patients actually followed through with the medical recommendation. However, as shown, those who received the brief touch to the forearm tended to follow through more often than those who did not receive touch thus moving the patients in the right direction.
While the research focused on medical adherence, the implications obviously have much wider applications.
The researchers are also keen to note that the positive effects of touching lasted 7 days after it had occurred. “To our knowledge,” say the researchers, “this is the first evidence that touch has some middle-term effects.”
Exactly why people tend to follow those who touch likely has to do with the fact that people believe those who touch to have greater abilities and expertise compared to those who don’t touch. The “toucher” may also been seen as more dominant and therefore more worthy of leadership. Other research supports this notion.
Other Studies Reporting Benefits of Touching
1. Touching leads to returning money left in a phone booth [Kleinke (1977]
2. Touch increases the response rates in street surveys [Gueguen 2001(b); 2002(a)].
3. Touching leads to greater persistence on a difficult task [Nannberg and
Hansen 1994].
4. Boosts tipping behaviour [Gueguen and Jacob 2005].
5. Touching leads to increased sales [Gueguen 2001(a)].
Evidence says that touching is positive and consistent overall, but does not always produce a large effect.
Image Credit: Dr. Wendy Longo
Resources
Gueguen, Nicolas; Sebastien Meineri and Virginie Charles-Sire. Improving Medication Adherence by Using Practitioner Nonverbal Techniques: A Field Experiment on the Effect of Touch. Journal of Behavioral Medice. 2019. 33:466–473
DOI 10.1007/s10865-010-9277-5
1. Kleinke, C. Compliance to Requests Made by Gazing and Touching Experimenters in Field Settings. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1977. 13: 218–223.
2. & 5. Gueguen, N. (2001a). Toucher et soumission a` une requeˆte: Re´plications expe´rimentales en situation naturelle et e´valuation de l’impact du statut. Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale. 2001(a). 14(3):113-158.
2. Gue´guen, N. (2001b). L’effet d’influence du toucher sur le comportement du consommateur: 2 illustrations expe´rimentales en exte´rieur. Direction et Gestion: La Revue des Sciences de Gestion. 2001(b). 190–191, 123–132.
3. Nannberg, J., & Hansen, C. Post-compliance touch: An incentive for task performance. The Journal of Social Psychology. 1994.134, 301–307.
4. Gue´guen, N., & Jacob, C. The effect of touch on tipping: An evaluation in a French’s bar. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 2005. 24(2): 295-299.