The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

238 Chapter 7

women to initiate touch (Major, Schmidlin, &

Williams, 1990). Both of these findings are

misleading, however, because touching was

best understood by considering both the sex

of the initiator and the sex of the recipient. As

shown in Figure 7.5a, there was greater cross-

sex than same-sex touch. Within cross-sex dy-

ads, males were more likely to touch females

than females were to touch males. Males ini-

tiated more touch—but only toward females.

Other contextual factors, such as age

and relationship status, have been investi-

gated in regard to touch. In contrast to in-

teractions among adults, interactions among

children show greater same-sex than cross-sex

touch (see Figure 7.5b). Among children, it

appeared that females were more likely to ini-

tiate touch, but this was due to the high pro-

portion of touching in the female–female dyad

compared to the other three dyads. From pre-

school through high school, same-sex touch

is more common than cross-sex touch—

especially for females (Gallace & Spence,

2010). However, from college through adult-

hood, cross-sex touch is more common than

same-sex touch. In cross-sex touch among

adults, who initiates the touch may depend on

age. In an observational study of touch among

teenagers and adults, men initiated touch to-

ward women among the younger group, but

women initiated touch toward men among

the older group (Hall & Veccia, 1990). In that

study, age is confounded with relationship

status, such that younger people have less de-

veloped relationships than older people. Thus,

men may initiate touch among the younger

people to indicate their control of a newly

formed relationship. Women may initiate

touch among the older people as an expres-

sion of the intimacy of the more developed

relationship. An evolutionary explanation for

this behavior is that men use touch to seduce

a woman into a sexual relationship during the

early stages, and women use touch to preserve

the intimacy of the relationship during the

later stages.

FIGURE 7.5 Among adults, there is greater cross-sex than same-sex touching. Among children,

there is greater same-sex than cross-sex touching. Adults are shown in Figure 7.5a and children are

shown in Figure 7.5b.

Source: Adapted from Major, Schmidlin, and William (1990).

Male

Male

(a)

Adults

Frequency of Touch

Female

Female Male Female

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Recipient:

Initiator:

Male

Male

(b)

Children

Frequency of Touch

Female

Female Male Female

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Recipient:

Initiator:

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