Overview
- In a survey of 526 college students in relationships, higher levels of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism were associated with using physical contact to control partners.
- An antagonistic interpersonal style representing the shared variance of the dark-triad traits predicted greater discomfort with being touched and greater coercive use of touch.
- Avoidant and anxious attachment orientations indirectly predicted both touch aversion and coercive behaviors through elevated dark-triad traits.
- Gender patterns diverged: women high in dark traits disliked being touched yet reported using touch manipulatively, while anxiously attached men tended to use touch for reassurance.
- Published in Current Psychology, the study’s authors note preliminary clinical possibilities for teaching healthier, reciprocal touch, but emphasize limits of self-report, cross-sectional data from a predominantly white, heterosexual undergraduate sample and call for broader, longitudinal replication.