The simple act of a hug can help protect people against stress and infection, according to coverage of new research from Carnegie Mellon University.
To measure the effects that hugs can have on infection, researchers looked at a pool of 404 healthy adults. Through a questionnaire, the research team asked the participants about their level of perceived social support. Additionally, through nightly telephone interviews, the team measured how many times participants were hugged. After that level was established, participants were exposed to a common cold virus and monitored for signs of illness.
The participants who had greater perceived social support and more frequent hugs had less severe illness symptoms, the researchers found.
"This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress," said Sheldon Cohen, PhD, a psychology professor in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
He added that the protective effect of hugs could be from the actual physical touch of a hug or from the belief that hugging is an indicator of support. Either way, he said, "those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection."