People generally have the same temperature, so the touch should feel neutral, not cooler, not warmer. Why does it feel warmer?
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Unless it’s cold, humans are constantly trying to shed heat. Even when sitting still or sleeping, your body’s natural processes make a lot of waste heat that you have to get rid of, or you overheat and die. A room full of people can get hot quickly.
Your body has different ways to vary heat loss, like increasing blood flow to the skin, or sweating for evaporative cooling. Your brain also doesn’t care about absolute temperature, it cares about how much heat is flowing, and whether you’re at your goal “set point” temperature. So, metal feels colder than air even when they’re the same temperature, because the metal quickly sucks up heat. A blanket feels warm because it’s insulating you and stopping you from shedding heat.
So, when you touch someone else’s hand, BOTH of your hands are trying to shed heat. Their hand feels hot because it’s preventing you from shedding heat, and your brain calls that “hot.” If their hand feels cold, that usually means their brain has switched to trying to warm up their body, so it’s reduced blood flow to their skin.
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