This is why you touch your face so often

Have you ever found yourself scratching your nose, rubbing your eyes or playing with your hair when lost in thought? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, we touch our faces more often than we realise – and for good reason, as scientists have discovered.

How often do we touch our faces?

Imagine touching your face 800 times a day. Sound excessive? Well, that was the figure recorded by a systematic review conducted in 2020. At the height of the pandemic, scientists looked into unconscious face touching for hygiene reasons. After all, each of these facial touches also carries a risk of infection. Consequently, data was collected in order to create public health guidelines. The conclusion? On average, we touch our faces 50 times an hour. That adds up to an astonishing 800 touches a day. Some of these touches have an obvious purpose, such as scratching an itchy spot or sweeping your hair back into place. However, these conscious touches only make up a small portion of the overall total. Most of the time, you seemingly touch your face for no apparent reason. However, these touches are, in fact, also useful.

The benefit of touching your face

Unconscious touch is more than just an annoying habit. It might actually play an important role in reducing stress and emotional regulation. Researchers have already shown that touch in general can have a positive impact on your health. Not only does it relieve anxiety and sadness, but it also helps with pain and high blood pressure. That said, most of these studies focused on skin-to-skin contact with other people, for example in the form of massages or hugs.

Self-touch can also be comforting

A team led by social psychologist Aljoscha Dreisörner conducted an experiment to find out if self-touch could have a similar impact. This involved putting 159 adults under stress by having them give an impromptu speech, then do mental arithmetic in front of an audience. Participants were divided into three groups.

One group received a 20-second hug from another person before the task. The second were asked to touch themselves for 20 seconds, for example by stroking their own cheek. Meanwhile, the third group didn’t receive any kind of touch.

During the experiment, the researchers repeatedly measured the level of cortisol in the participants’ saliva. The result was surprising: both the group who’d received a hug and the group who’d touched themselves showed a lower increase in cortisol levels. Apparently, received touch and self-touch curb the physical stress response.

What’s so special about touching your face?

Although this study demonstrated the positive effect of self-touch, it was initially unclear what role our faces play in all of this. After all, some participants stroked their arms or placed their hands on their chest. However, a study published in 2019 drew further conclusions on this. It revealed that we touch our faces particularly often in emotionally or cognitively demanding moments. This may help us cope better with whatever task we’re working on.

A glance inside the brain

To delve deeper into the mechanisms behind facial touch, a team from the University of Leipzig conducted a small but revealing study in 2014. They used electroencephalography (EEG) to record the brainwaves of 14 participants who were asked to memorise something. At the same time, they were deliberately distracted by loud background noise.

The result? EEG patterns coupled with unconscious grasping of the face indicated the participants were using a form of self-regulation. The gesture was helping them concentrate despite the challenging conditions. Interestingly, the EEG pattern didn’t occur when participants were instructed to touch their face. Spontaneity was the crucial factor.

An underestimated self-help strategy

Although research into self-touch is still in its infancy, the findings to date suggest that touching your face really can relieve stress. It seems as if we have a natural self-help strategy right at our fingertips – literally.