Albert AlcaineAlmost everyone who shares a hug is a great comfort, peace… Science has studied its effects and some of them are quite interesting. Science has studied their effects and some of them are quite interesting. How can such a simple gesture bring us so much relief? Why do they comfort us?
A hug is more than a hug: it can be a sign of love, tenderness, an “I am here”… It replaces a good number of words, and that itself, the human warmth, the contact, makes us feel good. It is a non-verbal language that makes us feel good.
If you find such a person, someone you can hug and with whom you can close your eyes to everything else, you can consider yourself very lucky. Even if it lasts for a minute, or a day.
Hugging brings benefits such as :
- Stress reduction.
- Feeling of security and protection.
- Helps our self-esteem.
- Sends energy and strength.
- Improves interpersonal relationships.
- Promotes a sense of tranquillity.
A proverb says that “a kiss without a hug is like a flower without the fragrance“, but what is it about hugs that we love so much?
According to a 2018 study published in the journal PLOS One, hugs are one of the most comforting social gestures in the face of negative emotions : when a person conflicts with another person, if they have received a hug that same day, their emotional state does not worsen as much as if they had not received one.
Hugging neutralises negative feelings and prevents positive feelings from diminishing. The results were observed in both men and women, although women explained that they had been hugged more days than men.
On the other hand, they convey calm and peace . It is a compelling non-verbal form of communication, through which we feel the bond with the other person materialise, making us feel safe and calm.
But they also generate pleasure. In 2021, researchers at the University of London published a study in the journal Acta Psychologica explaining that people experienced pleasure after receiving a hug, and that hugs could influence arousal for a short period of time .
Physiologically, they help regulate blood pressure, as they cause us to release oxytocin, the hormone responsible for making us feel pleasure, among other functions. Oxytocin helps regulate blood pressure.
Hugging someone, as I mentioned before, comforts us because it is a way of strengthening bonds, of boosting trust between two people, and it makes us feel good. We are social beings, we seek and need others and, if we find this correspondence, the presence of the other, it generates wellbeing and human warmth.
Finally, it makes us feel safe, protected, sheltered… And this feeling of refuge arises with the contact with the other body.
The best hugs are those that last between 5 and 10 seconds, while the least pleasant are those that last around one second . Being closer or the height does not determine whether a hug is better or worse.
📎 Alcaine, A. [Albert]. (2024, 28 August). The power of hugs. PsicoPop. https://www.psicopop.top/en/the-power-of-hugs/
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