Effects of Mutual Gaze and Touch on Attraction, Mood, and Cardiovascular Reactivity

Unacquainted men and women (n = 60) were randomly paired and instructed to engage in one of four combinations of mutual gaze/no gaze, mutual touch/no touch. Participants identified on the Romantic Beliefs Scale as being romantic expressed increased romantic attraction for their partner when they had shared mutual gaze. Mutual gaze did not influence ratings of romantic attraction given by low romantic participants. When sharing mutual gaze and touch, high romantics expressed greater desire to be paired with the same partner in the future and more positive affect (MAACL-R) than did low romantics. High romantics also expressed significantly more dysphoria when they did not have the opportunity to engage in mutual touch. The experience of mutual gaze resulted in significantly elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressures. The experience of mutual touch resulted in significantly elevated heart rates during the middle of the experiment. Results were integrated with studies of expressive behavior and interpersonal attraction and with limited published data on physiological responses to gaze and touch.