'Body map' shows where you're comfortable being touched.

By Dan Smith.

Men are more comfortable with a female stranger’s touch than that of a relative of either sex, according to a study that surveyed over 1,300 people from five countries to create an illustrated “body map”.

The research, conducted by scientists at the University of Oxford and Finland’s Aalto University and to be published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences, asked participants from Britain, Finland, Italy, France and Russia where they would allow particular people to touch them.

A “body map” was then created, showing where people were most comfortable with being touched and by whom.

The study found British people were less comfortable with touching than those from the other countries while Finns were the most comfortable, with Italians were only slightly more comfortable with touching than the British.

Women were found to be more comfortable with friends touching their bodies, while men were much less so — but they were happier for a female stranger touching any part of their body, including their genitals, than their family.

Men were also found to be far less likely to welcome touch from another man, regardless of their relationship.

In general — unsurprisingly — the closer the relationship, the greater the area that could be touched, regardless of nationality.

Researcher Juulia Suvilehto from Aalto University said the results indicated that touching remained an important means of maintaining social relationships.

"The touch-space map is closely associated with the pleasure caused by touching," she said in a press release.

"The greater the pleasure caused by touching a specific area of the body, the more selectively we allow others to touch it."

Oxford University's Professor Robin Dunbar said the study showed "even in an era of mobile communications and social media, touch is still important for establishing and maintaining the bonds between people".

"It is the relationship rather than familiarity that matters. A friend we haven't seen for some time will still be able to touch areas where an acquaintance we see every day would not," he said.

"We also interpret touch depending on the context of the relationship — we may perceive a touch in a particular place from a relative or friend as a comforting gesture, while the same touch from a partner might be more pleasurable, and from a stranger it would be entirely unwelcome.

"Touch is universal. While culture does modulate how we experience it, generally we all respond to touching in the same ways."

This post originally appeared on ABC News.