6 Reasons Touch is Important by Haptics

1. Touch gives us a sense of presence

Tactile sensations, vision, and proprioception (the sense of the position of our bodies in space) all combine to create our sense of body ownership or presence. When this is disrupted we become disorientated, losing our sense of what is our body and what isn’t.

Reaching out to touch things to assure ourselves of their reality is also a fundamental human behaviour. As Descartes put it, “Of all our senses, touch is the one considered least deceptive and the most secure.”

2. Sensory experience helps us explore the world

The complex interplay of sensations such as hot, cold, hard, soft, pain, itching, and so on is central to understanding and interacting with the world. Tactile sensations warn us, allow us to discriminate between objects, and (unlike vision) provide a 360° field of perception