The frictional properties of a rough contact interface are controlled by its area of real contact, the dynamical variations of which underlie our modern understanding of the ubiquitous rate-and-state friction law. In particular, the real contact area is proportional to the normal load, slowly increases at rest through aging, and drops at slip inception. Here, through direct measurements on various contacts involving elastomers or human fingertips, we show that the real contact area also decreases under shear, with reductions as large as 30[Formula: see text], starting well before macroscopic sliding. All data are captured by a single reduction law enabling excellent predictions of the static friction force. In elastomers, the area-reduction rate of individual contacts obeys a scaling law valid from micrometer-sized junctions in rough contacts to millimeter-sized smooth sphere/plane contacts. For the class of soft materials used here, our results should motivate first-order improvements of current contact mechanics models and prompt reinterpretation of the rate-and-state parameters.

Performing detailed studies of viscoelastic dewetting of thin polystyrene films on solid substrates, we demonstrate the existence of residual stress due to strongly out of equilibrium chain conformations and a reduced entanglement density resulting from film preparation by spin coating. The ratio of stress over elastic modulus was found to increase strongly with decreasing film thickness and increasing chain length. Full equilibration of chain conformations required long times comparable to bulk reptation times. However, for chains longer than about 3000 monomers, the residual stress relaxed faster, at a rate independent of chain length.