The influence of duration, arm crossing style, gender, and emotional closeness on hugging behaviour

Dueren, Anna L.; Vafeiadou, Aikaterini; Edgar, Chris J.; Banissy, Michael J.

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103441

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Despite its prevalence across all humans and its long history (the earliest recorded archeological evidence for a human embrace dates back to Neolithic times, Urbanus, 2008 ), there is still very little research on how this behavior occurs in daily life. While some information is now available on the duration of human embraces (the average embrace lasts approximately 3 s, Nagy, 2011 ) and the perception of pleasantness with respect to the duration (5 to 10 s are perceived as more pleasant than a 1 s duration embrace, Dueren et al, 2021 ) there is currently no study that has quantified the frequency of embraces in everyday life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Embracing with Daily Mood and General Life Satisfaction: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

et al. 2022

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Embracing has several positive health effects, such as lowering blood pressure and decreasing infection risk. However, its association with general life satisfaction and daily mood has not been researched in detail. Here, we used a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach to monitor the daily number of embraces and daily mood in a sample of 94 adults over the course of seven days. We found that embracing frequency differed slightly over the week, with embracing occurring more frequently on weekends than on weekdays. We also found that higher daily embracing frequencies were associated with better daily mood using multilevel modeling. Only singles benefitted from increases in average embracing regarding their life satisfaction, whereas individuals in a relationship were unaffected by their embracing tendencies. Although our results are strictly correlational and do not indicate any direction or causality, embraces may be important for daily mood and general life satisfaction, but their efficacy seems to depend on relationship status.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Embracing with Daily Mood and General Life Satisfaction: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

et al. 2022

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“…The positive feeling of an embrace is also associated with the duration of the embrace since longer embraces are perceived as more pleasant compared to very short, i.e. 1s long, embraces [ 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Romantic partner embraces reduce cortisol release after acute stress induction in women but not in men

et al. 2022

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Stress is omnipresent in our everyday lives. It is therefore critical to identify potential stress-buffering behaviors that can help to prevent the negative effects of acute stress in daily life. Massages, a form of social touch, are an effective buffer against both the endocrinological and sympathetic stress response in women. However, for other forms of social touch, potential stress-buffering effects have not been investigated in detail. Furthermore, the possible stress-buffering effects of social touch on men have not been researched so far. The present study focused on embracing, one of the most common forms of social touch across many cultures. We used a short-term embrace between romantic partners as a social touch intervention prior to the induction of acute stress via the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test. Women who embraced their partner prior to being stressed showed a reduced cortisol response compared to a control group in which no embrace occurred. No stress-buffering effect could be observed in men. No differences between the embrace and control group were observed regarding sympathetic nervous system activation measured via blood pressure or subjective affect ratings. These findings suggest that in women, short-term embraces prior to stressful social situations such as examinations or stressful interviews can reduce the cortisol response in that situation.

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“…Hugging style: Considering the asymmetry in heights between participants, binary hugs can be typically categorized into two main types based on hugging style: criss-cross hug and neck-waist hug 26 . Based on the specific execution of the individual, the neck-waist hug can be further subdivided into waist-loop hug and neck-loop hug.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Variations of these elements typically correlated with the intimacy and emotional expression of the participants. For these reasons, Dueren 26 further explored the influence of these abovementioned elements on inducing positive feelings. The results revealed that long hugs were more appreciated than short ones, while criss-cross hugs dominated over neck-waist hugs with the latter more prevalent in intimacy.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A HUG taxonomy of humans with potential in human–robot hugs

Yan,

Wang,

Ren

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Humans can easily perform various types of hugs in human contact and affection experience. With the prevalence of robots in social applications, they would be expected to possess the capability of hugs as humans do. However, it is still not an easy task for robots, considering the complex force and spatial constraints of robot hugs. In this work, we propose the HUG taxonomy, which distinguishes between different hugging patterns based on human demonstrations and prior knowledge. In this taxonomy, hugs are arranged according to (1) hugging tightness, (2) hugging style, and (3) bilateral coordination, resulting in 16 different hug types. We then further study the hug type preference of humans in different scenarios and roles. Furthermore, we propose a rule-based classification system to validate the potential of this taxonomy in human–robot hugs based on a humanoid robot with an E-skin of contact sensation. The HUG taxonomy could provide human hugging behavior information in advance, facilitating the action control of humanoid robots. We believe the results of our work can benefit future studies on human–robot hugging interactions.

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The influence of duration, arm crossing style, gender, and emotional closeness on hugging behaviour

Cited by 9 publications

References 27 publications

The Association of Embracing with Daily Mood and General Life Satisfaction: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

The Association of Embracing with Daily Mood and General Life Satisfaction: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Romantic partner embraces reduce cortisol release after acute stress induction in women but not in men

A HUG taxonomy of humans with potential in human–robot hugs

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