How to Stop Touching Your Face
Amidst fears about COVID-19, health professionals told people to stop touching their faces. Whenever we touch a contaminated surface and then touch our faces, we risk becoming infected. However, face touching is a common behavior that is rewarded every time we relieve discomfort by scratching an itchy nose or brushing a hair out of our eyes, and so for many of us it is an automatic habit. I noticed that no one was explaining how to reduce or eliminate this hard-to-change behavior. Therefore, I recruited two other UNLV professors to help me write an article explaining how to reduce face touching.
Brian Labus is a professor of public health, who was able to explain what behaviors people should be avoiding. For example, people should definitely avoid touching their eyes, nose, and mouth, but they should also avoid touching their glasses and hair. Stephen Benning is a professor in clinical psychology, who teaches people how to use habit reversal therapy to eliminate damaging habits like nail biting, skin picking, and hair pulling. Stephen and I combed the research literature to determine which habit reversal methods work best and which ones would likely work in the self-help context of an online article where readers do not work one-on-one with a personal therapist to help them eliminate a behavior. With the help of many lab members who provided feedback on early drafts of the article, we three were able to write a short explanation of how to stop touching your face, by applying the principles of habit reversal therapy to the context of face touching. Here you can read the original article in English, as well as translations in French, Spanish, and Indonesian.
As I wrote the article, I implemented many of my own suggestions. I pulled my hair back and put ear hooks on my glasses. I trimmed my nails and put a nail file by my desk. I used sushi tongs to eat potato chips and a spoon to eat chocolate. With all these situation modifications, I touched my face just three times per day. I was proud of myself. Then I got bored. When a hair got in my eye, I moaned in frustration. When I got pudding on my finger, I absentmindedly licked it off. My motivation had waned. However, I realized it will be months before we can go out in public without worrying that surfaces may be contaminated. Therefore, I buckled down to work and formally recorded each time I touched my face – something I never did while writing the article, even though research shows written records are more effective. Now I’m back to about three face-touches per day. Some days I slip up, but if I keep following the best advice about how to reduce face-touching, I know I’ll reduce the chances of infection.
I hope this article helps you reduce face touching, particularly when you are in public settings where you do not know if surfaces have been contaminated. Feel free to share our article with anyone you think might benefit from reading it.
Kimberly A. Barchard is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at UNLV and is the Director of the Interactive Measurement Group. She works to empower lab members to accomplish their personal and professional goals, particularly through the development of leadership, research, and organizational skills.