Your skin is two square metres of intimate sensory data. The Journal of Psychological Science has recently made some interesting discoveries: just being touched by a member of the opposite sex is enough to turn off your neural response to stress.

Furthermore, in a French study published in the journal Social Influence, women who were touched on the arm by a man were more likely to give him their number than those who weren’t. “Positive touches stimulate our brains to produce endorphins, the human body’s natural opiates,” says masseuse and touch therapist Katie Whitehouse, founder of Vital Touch. And that can only be a good thing for you.