Footsie (flirting)

Two people playing footsie.

Footsie (footsy, or footsies) is a flirting game where two people touch each other's feet with their feet, under a table or otherwise concealed place, often as a romantic prelude. It is a game played by two or more either as an act of flirtatious body language, or simply for enjoyment. Although footsie is not inherently romantic, the nature of it as playful touching is often done between young lovers as a sign of affection, and most often without discussion. The term comes from a 1940s humorous diminutive of foot.^[1] The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index (FTSE 100) is informally known as the footsie.^[2] Further, footsie is used in plural terms to categorize a digital photograph of a persons feet - similar to a selfie.

Effects

In a 1994 study on secret relationships, participants (college students from the US) played a partnered card game in which a subset were instructed to play footsie with their card playing partner.^[3] Of these, individuals whose footsie was kept a secret rated the attractiveness of their partner significantly higher than either those who did not play footsie, or those whose footsie was publicly known.^[4]

References