Following Thammasat University and national policy for COVID-19 prevention, students are now aware that among the guidelines is to avoid touching one’s face.

In the Western tradition of contemplation, the pose of the head resting on a hand is traditionally associated with thinking.

In intellectual life, contemplation means thinking deeply about something, as might be expected in a university atmosphere. As we know, in religious life, contemplation means inner vision, going beyond the intellect through prayer and meditation.

The Thammasat University Library owns several books about contemplation, prayer and meditation, but to develop new techniques for avoiding touching one’s face requires innovative approaches.

Medical authorities have suggested that the public avoid touching their faces during flu season for many years, as this posting on the website of the National Health Service of the United Kingdom suggests.

Since the subject has become more urgent, TU students who are interested in psychological science and public health may find some recommendations of interest that were posted online by psychologists and public health professionals.

One article reports:

Studies show that students, office workers, medical personnel and people on trains touch their faces between nine and 23 times per hour, on average.

Why is it so hard to stop? Face-touching rewards us by relieving momentary discomforts like itches and muscle tension. These discomforts usually pass within a minute, but face-touching provides immediate relief that eventually makes it a habitual response that resists change.

Change habitual behaviors

Habit reversal training is a well-established behavior modification technique that helps people stop a variety of seemingly automatic behaviors, such as nervous tics, nail-biting and stuttering. It trains people to notice the discomfort that prompts their habits, select another behavior to use until the discomfort passes and change their surroundings to lessen their discomfort.

You may have already changed some of your other habits – for example, by coughing into your elbow instead of your hands, or greeting others with a bow or wave instead of a handshake. But unlike coughing and hand-shaking, people frequently touch their faces without being aware of doing so. So the first step in reducing face-touching is becoming aware of it.

Each time you touch your face, notice how you touched your face, the urge or sensation that preceded it and the situation you were in – what you were doing, where you were physically or what you were feeling emotionally. If you usually don’t notice when you touch your face, you can ask someone else to point it out.

Self-monitoring is more effective when people create a physical record. You can create a log where you briefly describe each instance of face-touching. For example, log entries might say:

• Scratched nose with finger, felt itch, while at my desk

• Fiddled with eyeglasses, hands tingled, frustrated

• Rested chin on palm, neck sore, while reading

• Bit fingernail, nail caught on pants, watching TV

Self-monitoring is more effective if people share their outcomes publicly, so consider sharing your results with friends or post it on social media.

Create new responses

Now that you are aware of the behavior you want to change, you can replace it with a competing response that opposes the muscle movements needed to touch your face. When you feel the urge to touch your face, you can clench your fists, sit on your hands, press your palms onto the tops of your thighs or stretch your arms straight down at your sides. This competing response should be inconspicuous and use a position that can be held for at least a minute. Use the competing response for as long as the urge to touch your face persists…

Manage your triggers

Changing your environment can reduce your urges to touch your face and your need to use alternative responses. Use your log to figure out what situations or emotions are associated with your face-touching. For example:

• If your glasses keep slipping off your nose, you can use ear hooks or hair ties to prevent slippage.

• If you bite your nails, you can use a file to keep your nails short, or wear gloves or fingertip bandages, so that nail-biting is impossible.

• If allergies make your eyes or skin itch or make your nose run, you can limit your exposure to allergens or take antihistamines.

• If you get food stuck between your teeth, you can brush your teeth after each meal.

• If your hair gets in your eyes and mouth, you can use an elastic, scarf or hair product to keep it back.

You can read more detailed information about habit reversal training.

Face it, you may not be able to stop

Most people cannot entirely eliminate unwanted habits, but they can reduce them. Consistent with the principles of harm reduction, just reducing face-touching lessens the opportunities for viruses to enter your system.

Sometimes you need to touch your face: flossing your teeth, putting in contact lenses, wiping food off your lips, putting on makeup or shaving your jaw. Remember to wash your hands first. To adjust your glasses without first washing your hands, use a tissue and throw it out immediately after use. Avoid finger food and using unwashed hands to put food into your mouth. Wash your hands first, or use utensils or the wrapper to handle the food.

Other ways you can reduce the spread of infectious diseases include practicing social spacing, washing hands thoroughly with soap and water or hand sanitizer and disinfecting high-touch surfaces regularly. When your hands touch contaminated surfaces, though, the suggestions above may help you avoid touching your face before you wash them again.

Students may note that unconscious touching is different from deliberate physical responses, such as the gesture known as the facepalm. These are easier habits to change, since we are aware of them and do them deliberately:

The facepalm is the physical gesture of placing one’s hand across one’s face or lowering one’s face into one’s hand or hands, covering or closing one’s eyes. The gesture is often exaggerated by giving the motion more force and making a slapping noise when the hand comes in contact with the face. The gesture is found in many cultures as a display of frustration, disappointment, exasperation, embarrassment, horror, shock, surprise, exhaustion, sarcasm, or incredulous disbelief…The facepalm gesture is a popular Internet meme to show a user’s frustration or disappointment in an article, comment, or post from another user. It is often also used to indicate disbelief that another could make a statement that the reader considers unusually foolish or naive…Another visual use of facepalm is a facepalm emoji or emoticon that can be found on many websites such as Skype.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)