Touched by the Storyteller: The Influence of Remote Touch in the Context of Storytelling

In this study we investigate the role of remote touch as an additional communication channel in the context of storytelling. We focus on studying the effect of remote touch and the timing of touch on perceived social presence and story recall. In our experiment people listened to an emotional story. Listeners were either remotely touched by the storyteller at emotional story moments, remotely touched at random moments during the story, or not touched at all. Our results indicate that remote touch does not enhance the perceived social presence of the storyteller. However, even when the link between remote touch and the story is not explicitly clear, touch at emotional story moments can contribute to the perception of the story. Furthermore, while touches at emotional story moments can distract from the story content, touch in general can implicitly enhance the attention paid to the story content.