How often do we touch each day compared to time on email

As the National Spokesperson in Canada for Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion I worked with Vaseline on a touch research study. I have a few of the finding from the VICCL survey.

• In total, 1502 adults were interviewed across Canada.
• These interviews were conducted between August 2nd and August 7th, 2005.
• With a sample size of 1502, results are considered accurate to within (+ or -) 2.5 % points, 19 times out of 20.

Here are a few of the findings...

The most interesting thing in this bit is that the average Canadian spends an average of 5 minutes a day touching and an average of 35 minutes in electronic communication. Hmmmm, e-mail just is not the same as a hug.

Daily Touching

• On average, people have 8.9 separate incidences of touching each day.
• People in Alberta touch the most (13.0), while those in the Maritimes and Quebec do so the least (7.8 each).
• Older people are the less frequently touched (between 45-54 - 7.4, between 55-64 - 5.3, and 65+ 4.4).
• Unmarried people are more likely to touch 2 or less times a day (38%), while married people touch 6 or more times a day (42%).

Daily Amount of Touch

• More than half of Canadians spend less than five minutes a day engaged in touch (61%). This is particularly true of those over the age of 55 (71%).
• The average amount of time touching is 7.4 minutes. This is consistent across the country.
• Men are more likely than women to spend less than a minute touching (37% vs. 24% respectively).
• Married people also spend more time touching (8.5 minutes vs. 5.6 minutes).

Daily Amount of TouchAverage Number of Minutes Spent on Touch / Daily Amount of Electronic Communication

• Two-thirds of Canadians spend more than 10 minutes a day on electronic communication, with one third spending more than one hour.
• 45% of people under 45 spend more than an hour a day on electronic communication.
• The average amount of time spent on electronic communication is 33.5 minutes.
• People in Alberta and B.C. spend the most time on electronic communication (an average of 40.7 and 37.3 minutes respectively).

If you want to hear more, I will be on "Breakfast Television" Canada's version of the Today Show Monday morning Feb 6 around 7:00 am talking about touch and the Vaseline Science of Touch exhibit.

Bush body language

Well, They kept the camera so tight on President Bush's face I did not see the gesture I was asked about. I am going to keep watching him in future speeches and comment on it when I do.

He did use one emphatic hand to chest gesture in the whole speech. When he said, "I have the power (gesture) given to me by congress to decide...(on the patriot act.) The hand to the chest symbolically showed his power and that power was centered on him, and the hitting motion signaled that he would back up that power with might. You are more likely to see that gesture in old movies were they have a stereotped russion leader emphasing that he is in charge. Hummm.

Bush gestures

Someone for one of my workshops asked me in an email today if I had ever analyzed the gestures that George W. Bush uses when he speaks. "... Particularly, the one where he brings his hands - backs facing outward up to the sides of his chest. It is a gesture that GWB frequently uses but neither of us has ever seen any analysis of this particular gesture. " I will be watching more of the state of union tape tonight for it. I am familiar with the gesture and he is coached to do the gesuture so I will need to see in what context he uses it to see if he is coached to use when he says particular things or just to use it when he is so moved.

I am doing speech coaching with a client all day Thursday so hope to do my blog tonight or early tommrrow morning. I'm off to get some Thai food. Yummm!

Bush, State of the Union & Tongue Thrusts

I taught my Emory "Meeting of the Minds" class last night, so I had a short reprieve from analyzing President Bush’s body language in the State of the Union speech. This morning I turned on the DVR recording (a version of TVO) and started watching him.

Surprise, he is still giving his habitual tongue thrusts. A tongue thrust is when someone sticks his tongue part of the way out of the mouth. Typically this is done very quickly in what is called a micro facial cue. A body language cue done so quickly you only notice it at a subconscious level. So you may feel, “Humm, he seems aggressive, but I don’t know why.”

Bush has a habit of giving slow, definite tongue thrusts after making a comment he is uncomfortable with. I have to be very objective about my reads when I am being interviewed by the media, but hey, this is a blog. I believe he does it to gear himself up and feel more confident. He does not give tongue thrusts when he talks about Iraq or war or attacking. In reading Bush, it is clear to me he is most comfortable when he is aggressive. For a detailed interpretation of the state of the union address two years ago, see go here . I will be watching more of last night's address and blogging about it. Of course, that means I have to watch the speech over and over, so pray for me.

Gidget. The power of handshakes

So I am back from Canada on the touch campaign. The first order of business is to answer that trivia question. Gidget the 60’s surfing movie teen, got her name from Moondoggie, the boy she was so smitten with she learned to surf. Moondoggie created her name by morphing Girl with Midget to make Gidget. A name she hated in the first movie, but soon everyone, even her dad, was using it. I love the feisty character; she was surfing, back when few women were accepted in any men’s sports.

Ok, so I am back from the Media tour in Toronto. One of the highlights as body language and touch expert was an interview on an afternoon talk show. The previous day the new prime minister had his photo taken shaking hands with his small son. The host asked me about that. I personally think it was just a photo op. hopefully; the new prime minister does more than shake hands with his young son! Any touch is preferable to none. And you know my threes years of research on handshakes has found that a handshake is equal to three hours of continuous interaction. That means if you do not shake hands at the beginning of the meeting it will take three hours of talking to get to the same level of rapport you can have with one handshake. Powerful stuff touch.