Unnecessary Pre-Mondler Hand Touching and an Essay on the importance of Touch in General, and Hand Touching Specifically and How it Encourages Trust, Relaxation, and Expresses Love.
Touch is incredibly important to the human animal, stemming from our primate ancestors. Touch has been proven to build co-operative relationships and reinforce reciprocity and promoting trust and generosity. There are studies showing that touch signals safety and trust, it soothes. Basic warm touch calms cardiovascular stress. It activates the body’s vagus nerve, which is intimately involved with our compassionate response, and a simple touch can trigger release of oxytocin, aka “the love hormone.”
"The right kind of touch can communicate more than speech, eye contact, or body language. Successful touches — even platonic, light ones — create a bond that is strong between people."
"Touch is one of the biggest mutual attraction signs going. If you touch her, you’re showing interest. If she likes being touched by you, she’s attracted to you. Note that this applies to even “accidental” touch."
"If the reaction to touch is positive, these touches will clear up ambiguity and show you're interested. Even if they don't, they can help relax and excite the other person, building chemistry. If the reaction is negative, she or he will flinch away and you will have instant feedback that they are opposed to the idea." Neither Monica nor Chandler ever flinches away.
"But there's something extra special about holding hands with another human being. All of us are innately conscious of how this simple act can stir an instant intimacy, heighten our awareness and express a deep connection. This alchemy of two hands touching has so deeply captured our collective imagination, featuring heavily in love stories like Romeo and Juliet."
“When the fingers are interlaced and someone is holding your hand, they’re stimulating pressure receptors [that trigger] what’s called vagal activity,” Field says. “When there’s pressure in the touch, the heart rate goes down, the blood pressure goes down, and you’re put in a relaxed state. When people interlace their fingers, they get more pressure stimulation than the regular way of holding hands.”
(There are a lot of moments of preMondler touches - all the times she comforts him, all the times they sit together in the same chair. She reaches for him to hold his arms and he lays his hand on her back as he moves past her. She touches his knee to get his attention and strokes his chest to thank him and he's always holding her shoulders, massaging her shoulders, touching her shoulder to make sure she's okay. So I only singled out the hand touching specifically and took out the moments they shook hands or hi-fived and had a valid reason to touch each other besides being Mondler/Matteney).
