How Texture Affects Your Mood

Created By RISC | 10 months ago

Last modified date : 10 months ago

Ever wondered why you feel so good touching a fluffy pet or cuddly toy? But so bad when you touch something hard?​

Skin contact affects our emotions more than we think.​

A Russian study from 2019 asked 108 blindfolded volunteers to identify 6 emotions from touching 21 different textured materials, such as rabbit fur, silk, velvet, sponge, rubber, leather, sandpaper, glass pebble, marble, granite. Participants were asked if they felt happiness, fear, disgust, anger, sadness, or surprise.​

Rabbit fur, velvet, rubber, leather, and silk were clearly associated with happiness. Marble, granite, sandpaper, and sponge brought negative emotions. Marble was associated with sadness, granite with fear, and sandpaper and sponge with fear, disgust, and anger. All 21 material samples were associated with surprise.​

But soft materials don’t always elicit positive emotions. Toy slime, one of the sample materials, triggered both positive and negative emotions such as fear, disgust, and anger. Hard materials such as glass pebble were associated with both positive and negative emotions. To summarize, most soft and smooth surfaces elicit more positive emotions than hard or rough materials. ​

Different textures change our emotions. To create a good experience and feeling for users, designers should also pay attention to selecting the right material, whether in building design or packaging.​

Story by Chirapa Horbanluekit, Communication Researcher, RISC​

References:​
Iosifyan, Marina & Korolkova, Olga. (2019). Emotions associated with different textures during touch. Consciousness and Cognition. 71. 79-85. 10.1016/j.concog.2019.03.012.​