Both sexes are only comfortable with full-body intimacy with their partners, a new study has shown.

If you feared you were irrationally uncomfortable about being touched by strangers, don't worry - you're in good company.

It turns out no one particularly enjoys anything other than shaking hands with people they don't know, or so researchers at Oxford University and Finland's Aalto University have found.

After surveying 1300 respondents in the biggest study ever conducted into physical contact, scientists created a "body map" which outlines exactly where people feel at ease being touched and by whom.

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

The graphic shows how, when torn between a handshake or a kiss on the cheek when meeting a new person, it's always best to err on the side of caution.

The data, published by PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in America), shows that women are generally more at ease with physical contact.

While some results are unsurprising, such as both sexes only being comfortable with full-body intimacy with their partner alone, males didn't class genital contact with female strangers as "taboo", instead plumping for "least comfortable".

They did, however, find contact from a male friend far more uncomfortable than women did.

Women found it would be taboo to be touched intimately by anyone other than their partner or mum.

Professor Robin Dunbar, who led the study, said touch was still important for establishing and maintaining bonds between people, even in a social media age.

"We know that if people don't see each other the quality of that relationship diminishes and your best friend will bump down to just an acquaintance.

"Social media does allow you to slow that decline but it doesn't stop a relationship failing. You really need to see the whites of their eyes."

The study, which included participants from the UK, Finland, France, Italy and Russia, showed "kissing a stranger on the cheek would still make a lot of people uncomfortable", Dunbar said.



"But with modern life it has become as conventional as a handshake and so no longer seems overly familiar, especially if you have been introduced by a friend."

Regardless we'll be sticking to a far-less-awkward handshake from now on - unless the handshake in question is this one: