Primates are long-lived, highly social mammals who maintain long-term social bonds and cohesive social groups through many affiliative mechanisms, foremost among them social touch. From birth through adulthood, social touch – primarily mutual grooming – creates and maintains relationships of trust and reliance, which are the basis for individual physical and emotional well-being and reproductive success. Because social touch helps to establish, maintain, and repair social alliances in primates, it contributes to the emotional stability of individuals and the cohesion of social groups. In these fundamental ways, thus, social touch supports the slow life histories of primates. The reinforcing neurochemistry of social touch insures that it is a pleasurable activity and this, in turn, makes it a behavioral commodity that can be traded between primates for desirable rewards such as protection against future aggression or opportunities to handle infants. Social touch is essential to normal primate development, and individuals deprived of social touch exhibit high levels of anxiety and lower fertility compared to those receiving regular social touch. Understanding the centrality of social touch to primate health and well-being throughout the lifespan provides the foundation for appreciating the importance of social touch in human life.

灵长类动物是长寿的，高度社交的哺乳动物，它们通过许多联系机制（其中最重要的是社会联系）保持长期的社会纽带和凝聚力的社会群体。从出生到成年，社会交往（主要是相互修饰）建立并维持信任和依赖的关系，这是个人身心健康和生殖成功的基础。因为社会接触有助于建立，维持和修复灵长类动物的社会联盟，所以它有助于个人的情绪稳定和社会群体的凝聚力。因此，以这些基本方式，社会交往支持了灵长类动物缓慢的生活史。社交触觉增强的神经化学作用确保了它是一种愉快的活动，而这反过来又 使其成为一种行为商品，可以在灵长类动物之间进行交易，以获得可取的奖励，例如防止日后的侵略或处理婴儿的机会。社交活动对于灵长类动物的正常发育至关重要，与那些经常接受社交活动的人相比，缺乏社交活动的人表现出较高的焦虑感和较低的生育力。了解社交触觉在整个生命过程中灵长类健康和福祉的中心地位，为理解社交触觉在人类生活中的重要性提供了基础。