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We hug friends and pleasant colleagues, children and parents, loved ones and adored pets… This type of contact plays an important role in our lives. How much do we know about him? For the international day of hugs on January 21 – unexpected scientific facts from the biopsychologist Sebastian Ocklenburg.
International Hug Day is a holiday celebrated in many countries on January 21st. And also on December 4th… and a few more times a year. Perhaps the more often, the better, because “hugs” have a beneficial effect on our mood and condition. In principle, each of us could see this more than once – a warm human contact is needed by a person from early childhood until the end of his life.
When we have no one to hug, we feel sad and feel lonely. Using a scientific approach, neuroscientists and psychologists have examined hugs and proven their undoubted benefits, as well as studied their history and even duration. Biopsychologist and brain researcher Sebastian Ocklenburg has listed five very interesting and, of course, strictly scientific facts about hugs.
1. How long does it last
A study by Emesi Nagy of the University of Dundee included an analysis of 188 spontaneous hugs between athletes and their coaches, competitors and fans during the 2008 Summer Olympics. According to scientists, on average, they lasted 3,17 seconds and did not depend on either the gender combination or the nationality of the couple.
2. People have been hugging each other for thousands of years.
Of course, no one knows exactly when this first happened. But we know that hugging has been in the human behavioral repertoire for at least a few thousand years. In 2007, a team of archaeologists discovered the so-called Lovers of Valdaro in a Neolithic tomb near Mantua, Italy.
The lovers are a pair of human skeletons that lie embracing. Scientists have determined that they are approximately 6000 years old, so we know that already in Neolithic times, people hugged each other.
3. Most people hug with their right hand, but it depends on our emotions.
As a rule, we lead the hug with one hand. A German study, co-authored by Ocklenburg, analyzed whether most people’s hand is dominant – right or left. Psychologists observed couples in the arrivals and departures halls of international airports and analyzed videos of volunteers blindfolding themselves and allowing strangers to hug them on the street.
It turned out that in general most people do it with their right hand. This was done by 92% of people in an emotionally neutral situation, when strangers hugged a blindfolded person. However, in more emotional moments, that is, when friends and partners meet at the airport, only about 81% of people make this movement with their right hand.
Since the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right half of the body and vice versa, it is believed that the shift to the left in hugs is associated with a greater involvement of the right hemisphere of the brain in emotional processes.
4. Hugs Help Manage Stress
Public speaking is stressful for just about everyone, but cuddling before going on stage can help relieve stress. A study conducted at the University of North Carolina examined how hugging before a stressful event reduced its negative impact on the body.
The project tested two groups of couples: in the first, partners were given 10 minutes to hold hands and watch a romantic movie, followed by a 20-second hug. In the second group, the partners simply rested quietly, without touching each other.
After that, one person from each pair had to participate in a very tense public performance. At the same time, his blood pressure and heart rate were measured. What are the results?
People who cuddled with partners prior to the stressful situation had significantly lower blood pressure and heart rate readings than those who had no physical contact with their partners prior to public speaking. Thus, we can conclude that hugs lead to a decrease in the reaction to stressful events and may contribute to the maintenance of cardiovascular health.
5. Not only people do it
Humans do hug a lot compared to most animals. However, we are certainly not the only ones who use this kind of physical contact to convey social or emotional meaning.
A study by scientists at Florida International University examined the hugging of the Colombian spider monkey, a highly social species of monkey found in forests in Colombia and Panama. They found that, unlike humans, the monkey had not one, but two different types of action in its arsenal: “face hugs” and regular ones.
The usual was like in humans – two monkeys wrapped their arms around each other and laid their heads on the partner’s shoulders. But in the “embrace of the face” hands did not participate. The monkeys mostly hugged their faces, only rubbing their cheeks against each other.
Interestingly, just like humans, the monkeys had their own preferred hugging side: 80% preferred to cuddle with their left hand. Many of those who have pets will say that both cats and dogs are very good at hugging.
Maybe we humans taught them that. However, the fact remains that this kind of physical contact sometimes conveys emotions better than any words and helps to support and calm, show closeness and love, or just show a kind attitude.
About the Author: Sebastian Ocklenburg is a biopsychologist.