The sense of touch is getting a closer look, too. Research shows that people in stressful situations tend to touch their faces more often. In addition, Joshua Ackerman, a PhD psychology researcher at the University of Michigan, has studied the impact of face-touching on decision-making. He’s learned that people touch their faces an average of about 15 times an hour, and they say it clarifies thoughts and feelings. “Just putting your hand up to feel your face at some level directs your attention toward what’s going on in your head,” he explains. “The same areas of the brain that process information from the senses also deal with other types of thoughts and actions. So the processes can spill over and influence one another.”