A study of Chinese, Dutch and Greek participants found that people are ticklish in remarkably similar body regions across cultures.
The armpits, soles of the feet, abdomen and sides of the torso emerged as the main ticklish hotspots.
Researchers found that laughter during tickling does not necessarily mean enjoyment, with many adults describing the experience as neutral or unpleasant.
The study suggests ticklishness is shaped by a complex mix of social, sensory and physiological factors, rather than a single explanation.
People from different cultural backgrounds appear to be ticklish in remarkably similar ways, according to a new study that suggests the sensation is more complex than previously thought.
The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour on August 10, 2026, surveyed 448 people from Chinese, Dutch and Greek backgrounds. Researchers Ziliang Xiong and Konstantina Kilteni, from the Donders Institute at Radboud University, worked with Karolinska Institutet to examine how people experience tickling, who tickles them and which parts of the body are most ticklish.
They found that tickling was common across all three groups. More than 95 per cent of participants had either been tickled or had tickled someone else, suggesting that tickling behaviour is widespread.
Across the groups, people reported similar reactions. Most said they laughed when tickled and were usually tickled by family members or friends. During childhood, people were more often tickled by someone older than themselves, while in adulthood, tickling by people of the same age became more common.
But laughter did not necessarily mean enjoyment. During childhood, 42 per cent of participants said they enjoyed being tickled, compared with 35 per cent as adults. More than a quarter described being tickled as unpleasant, while many adults said they felt neutral about it.
The researchers also asked participants to colour body diagrams showing where they felt most ticklish. The resulting body maps were strikingly similar across cultures. The armpits, soles of the feet, abdomen and sides of the torso consistently emerged as the most ticklish regions.
The study tested several long-standing explanations for why some body parts are more ticklish than others, including theories linked to skin thickness, touch sensitivity, vulnerability and pleasure. The researchers found that none of these explanations fully matched the data.
For example, the most ticklish areas were not those with the thinnest skin, such as the lips or eyelids. Nor were they simply the areas most sensitive to ordinary touch, or those where touch is usually experienced as most pleasurable.
The strongest support was found for Charles Darwin’s idea that body parts touched less often tend to be more ticklish. The researchers said rarely touched regions may produce a stronger surprise response when contact occurs.
But the study also found that no single theory could fully explain ticklishness. Instead, the sensation appears to depend on a combination of social, sensory and physiological factors.
The researchers are now studying ticklishness in a laboratory, where a robotic device tickles participants’ feet under controlled conditions. They say understanding how the brain generates ticklishness could help explain how touch, emotion, social behaviour and evolution work together.