But Why Does It Feel Good to Touch Wood?

I'm a committed Crude Empiricist so I don't need to know why it feels good to touch wood. It does. But I am also a curious monkey, so I am intrigued by the question. And some of the reason might be the temperature conductance. Natural, unfinished wood conducts heat the least and was the most pleasing or calming, while metal, with its higher conductance, was the least likely to lean people into a parasympathetic state. Highly treated wood was in the middle. It's possible that our mood shift, when we touch wood, is actually from that organismic integration — expectation, fragrance, touch and who knew? Temperature. The point from a Feldenkrais perspective is to notice that shift (if you have it — maybe you don't) and celebrate it, and maybe enjoy it all the more knowing what a complex integration of sensorial streams are involved.

Heat transfer, physiological responses, and subjective perceptions during short contact time with wood or other materials