According to a recent study, hugs can be the key to better social interactions.
The research suggests that reaching out and consensually hugging people can actually reduce bad feelings associated with the typical ups and downs of our social interactions.
Conducted by of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, the study focused on the social interactions of more than 400 people over two weeks. Keeping track of their moods and physical interactions, the results of the study revealed a connection between emotional states, conflicts and the number of hugs a person gave or received, CNN reported.
“Results indicated that there was an interaction between hug receipt and conflict exposure such that receiving a hug was associated with a smaller conflict-related decrease in positive affect and a smaller conflict-related increase in negative affect when assessed concurrently,” the study reads.
The study basically suggests that hugs make people feel less bad about conflicts and negative events that take place during the day. While the study noticed the same effects across all genders and ages, women reported more hugs than men.
The study also mentioned, “Our results are consistent with the conclusion that both men and women may benefit equally from being hugged on days when conflict occurs.”
The research also pointed out that it did not matter if the huggers were in a romantic relationship at the time of the gesture.
Michael Murphy, a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon, said, “the lack of specificity regarding from whom individuals received hugs also restricted our ability to identify whether hugs from specific types of social partners were more effective than those from others.”
In short, there’s no harm in distributing consensual hugs. They have the power to brighten somebody else’s day! (ANI)
