Houston Daily

Researchers at the University of Houston's Affective and Data Computing Laboratory (ACDC Lab) have found that touching one's face—especially the nose, chin, and cheeks—has a strong connection to increased stress levels during cognitive tasks. The study, presented on October 10 at the Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction conference, is the first large-scale analysis of facial self-touch in real-world work environments using artificial intelligence.

The research involved monitoring 10 academic professionals in their offices over four workdays. The team collected nearly 170 hours of video recordings, used thermal cameras to track facial perspiration as a proxy for stress, smartwatches to monitor heart rate, and assessed computer activity to measure focus. Researchers noticed repeated face-touching behaviors, mainly performed with the non-dominant hand, which increased during high-stress periods.

Fettah Kiran, lead author and doctoral graduate of UH’s Department of Computer Science, stated: “The most significant finding is the strong positive association between the frequency of chin-cheek-nose spontaneous facial self-touch and sympathetic overactivity.”

Ioannis Pavlidis, ACDC Lab Director and senior author of the study, explained: “Usually stress and emotions are related to facial expressions, but it appears when we are all by ourselves, this facial communication breaks down.”

The findings suggest that spontaneous facial self-touching may serve as an evolutionary self-soothing behavior that helps regulate stress. Similar gestures are observed in primates, indicating an evolutionary component. Pavlidis commented: “That touching provides a degree of comfort, which perhaps counterbalances your stress. It’s hypothesized that may be one reason that people do this.”

The researchers also noted that frequent facial self-touching might be linked to improved memory among individuals who touch their faces often. These insights could inform the development of non-invasive tools for monitoring workplace stress among knowledge workers such as engineers, writers, and designers.

Kiran said: “Spontaneous facial self-touch (sFST) is a valuable new channel for monitoring emotional states in knowledge-based work settings. It introduces a novel way to measure mental stress and could guide future strategies for stress management. sFST and physical breaks may work together to effectively reduce elevated stress during cognitive tasks.”