What makes a teddy bear comforting? A participatory study reveals the prevalence of sensory characteristics and emotional bonds in the perception of comforting teddy bears

ABSTRACT

Considered as a transitional object, the comforting power of the teddy bear has often been asserted in many past studies without knowing its underlying determinants. Through a participatory study conducted during the European Researchers’ Night, this study aims to identify characteristics of teddy bears that influence their comforting power, including visual, olfactory and kinesthetic properties. We also tested the effect of ownership on comforting power. Our study revealed that the emotional bond shared with a teddy bear is a predominant factor. However, we identified characteristics that play a significant role in the perception of comfort, which lies in a combination of visual, olfactory, and especially kinesthetic characteristics. Through these results, our study identifies the determinants spontaneously taken into account in the attribution of teddy bears’ capacity to provide comfort. These results were independent of participants’ age, reminiscent of the teddy bear’s ability to provide comfort at all stages of life.

KEYWORDS:

• Teddy bear
• emotional comfort
• participatory study
• transitional objects
• multi-sensory study

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participants of the European Researchers’ Night and their teddy bears. Special thanks to the coordinators of the European Researchers’ Night and the local coordinators who conducted the events in the 13 participating cities: Matteo Merzagora, Axelle Hubert and Clémentine Bricout (Traces Group); Jérémy Querenet, Jeanne-Antide Leque and Claire Dupouet (University of Franche-Comté); Robin Drieu, Lionel Maillot, Orane Boulay and Coralie Biguzzi (University of Burgundy); Ingrid Silpa (University of Le Mans); Jean-Pierre Jandot (Terre des Sciences, Angers); Lionel Feuillassier, Anne Rognant, Marie Lhuilery, Tiphaine Birien and Pascale Nicol (Oceanopolis, Brest); Christelle Letellier and Lucie Vidal (University of Reunion Island); Hélène Pierre and Catherine Gadon (University of Toulouse); Julie Fortin and Louis Badet (Ecole des Mines, Saint-Étienne); Isabelle Galvez, Chloé Landry, Florence Lisle and Hannah Robin (Aix-Marseille University); Anne-Sophie Devy (IMT Mines Albi); Blandine De La Rochebrochard and Marianne Pouget (Cap Sciences Bordeaux Aquitaine); Geneviève Feuillade, Diane Daian, Didier Tsala Affa and Sandrine Karam (University of Limoges); Karen Chevalier (Institut National Universitaire Champollion, Albi); and Sandrine Bron (ESPCI Paris). Thanks also to John Bandelier (director of the Kimiyo Association) for providing the illustrations in Figure 1. We thank Bruno Bergot for website development (https://nounours.umontpellier.fr/), and Frederic Geniet (Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, University of Montpellier) for his help and the provision of spectrophotometers necessary for the design of the colorimetric charts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data associated with this paper can be found here in open access: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19948322.v2.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19948322.v2.

Ethical statement

All the subjects have provided appropriate informed consent (see Supplemental online material) provided by the Data Protection Officer of the University of Montpellier, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (European Regulation No. 2016_679_EU of 27 April 2016) and the law relating to data processing, files and freedoms (Law No. 78-17 of 6 January 1978). The survey conducted during this study is non-interventional and anonymous.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2023.2170273

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and Citizens, European Researcher’s Night. This work received additional funding from the LabEx CeMEB.