Research has suggested that interpersonal touch promotes social processing and other-
concern, and that women may respond to it more sensitively than men. In this study, we
asked whether this phenomenon would extend to third-party observers who experience
touch vicariously. In an eye-tracking experiment, participants (N= 64, 32 men and 32
women) viewed prime and target images with the intention of remembering them. Primes
comprised line drawings of dyadic interactions with and without touch. Targets comprised …