Thick calluses don’t make feet any less sensitive
A study in Kenya compared shoe-clad versus bare feet of urban and rural residents
The tender feet of the shoe-clad are no better at sensing the ground than the callused soles of the barefoot.
Calluses, skin thickened by rubbing against other surfaces, would seem to offer protection at the expense of sensitivity. But that isn’t what Harvard University human evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman has experienced when he runs barefoot in summer.
As Lieberman’s calluses get thicker, “it [doesn’t] hurt as much to run — I could step on acorns and other things,” he says. “But I never felt like I lost sensory perception.”