Psychology

Tactile emoticons: Conveying social emotions and intentions with manual and robotic tactile feedback during social media communications

A. Saramandi, Y. K. Au, et al.

Gentle manual stroking at C‑Tactile (CT)‑optimal velocities—so-called tactile emoticons—conveyed greater social intent and perceived support than CT‑suboptimal strokes or visual emoticons, and visuotactile emoticons delivered at CT‑optimal speeds increased perceived prosocial intent and altered physiological responses in anxious participants. This research was conducted by Alkistis Saramandi, Yee Ki Au, Athanasios Koukoutsakis, Caroline Yan Zheng, Adrian Godwin, Nadia Bianchi‑Berthouze, Carey Jewitt, Paul M. Jenkinson, and Aikaterini Fotopoulou.