View source for Touching heads

{{Short description|Human emotional expression}}
{{globalize|reason=definitely not all cultures touch heads. in some places, "touching heads" is just weird.|date=March 2016}}
[[File: Freundinnen.jpg| thumb|A bodily expression of positive emotions]]
'''Touching heads''' is a uniquely [[human]] emotional expression that does not occur in nonhuman primates.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} All races, age groups and sexes of humankind interpret this behavior as an expression of positive emotions, such as love—including brotherly love, friendship etc.
It is absent in other [[apes]], though they tend to use the same bodily expressions of emotions like humans.<ref>Darwin Charles (1998) ''The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'', 3rd edn, London: Harper Collins.</ref> A 2012 study claimed that this [[behavior]] likely evolved in humans to share [[head lice]] among friends and relatives. Head lice infestations might serve as a protection against [[body lice]] by inducing cross-resistance. This can be adaptive because only the latter type of lice transmit potentially lethal human pathogens.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.zoologia.hu/list/Why_infest.pdf | title=Why infest the loved ones – inherent human behaviour indicates former mutualism with head lice | author=Rozsa L, Apari P | journal=Parasitology | date=2012 | volume=139 | pages=696–700 | doi=10.1017/s0031182012000017 | pmid=22309598}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Gestures]]
[[Category:Human communication]]
[[Category:Human head and neck]]
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