The comfort in touch: Immediate and lasting effects of handholding on emotional pain
Fig 3
Negative memories that are associated with handholding in the lab are later recalled with lower emotional pain.
Emotional pain when recalling a negative emotional memory at follow-up plotted by touch condition (hand or ball). Participants felt significantly less pain recalling an emotional memory after that memory was paired in the lab with handholding as compared to holding a squeeze ball.