Can you remember the last time that you received an especially good hug?
For Anna Lena Dueren, a psychologist in Germany, it was the day that her mother died. She was 19 years old when she received a call from her father telling her the news. In shock, she confided in a friend, who immediately hugged her.
“She held on for quite a while,” Dr. Dueren said. The hug was “super meaningful,” she added, and remains a vivid memory more than 10 years later.
Now, Dr. Dueren and her colleagues have published a study looking at how people remember and perceive hugs. Drawing from a large survey, they analyzed the responses of more than 15,000 people who were asked about the positive aspects of memorable hugs, like comfort, friendliness or happiness. The study suggested that people’s gender, as well as their attachment style — or how they relate to other people in the context of relationships, according to attachment theory — plays a role in what hugs mean to them.
“The perception of hugs is just incredibly complex,” Dr. Dueren said. Your feelings about being hugged can be influenced by a variety of factors, including experiences you’ve had in past relationships, the ways you’ve been physically touched in the past and your relationship to your body.
In the study, which was published recently in the journal PLOS One, nearly 70 percent of the respondents could recall a hug that left them with positive feelings, most often because the hug offered comfort, support or understanding.
Survey participants filled out a questionnaire that measured their attachment style. Those who scored higher in what psychologists term an avoidant attachment style — displaying independence and self-sufficiency in their interpersonal relationships — were less likely to remember hugs that left them with positive emotions than those who scored lower on that scale. Those who had a so-called anxious attachment style — showing a tendency to feel distress when faced with the prospect of separation — had a greater likelihood of remembering a positive hug. (The questionnaire did not screen for those with a secure attachment style.)
Dr. Gail Saltz, a psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, who was not involved in the study, said the results made sense given what we know about attachment styles.
For those with anxious attachment, who tend to crave extra reassurance, hugs might be “exactly what they’re seeking out,” Dr. Saltz said. “It’s a sign that would reduce their anxiety.”
However, those with avoidant attachment styles might feel scared or uncomfortable at the prospect of intimacy, she said. For them, hugs might elicit the feeling of “being smothered,” rather than comforted or supported.
Among all the possible reasons to remember a hug, “arousal” was mentioned least often by the study participants, who were mostly women. The men surveyed were more likely than the women to remember hugs because they were physically arousing. The survey did not specify whether the arousal was of a sexual nature.
Dr. Dueren and her colleagues analyzed data from the Touch Test, a worldwide survey that explored attitudes about touch. The researchers included only subjects who lived in the United Kingdom and who did not have chronic health conditions. The participants in the Touch Test survey were recruited through public broadcasting programs and other media, so the sample of respondents may have been particularly interested in touch.
The lack of geographic diversity and self-selected participants were limitations in the research, the study said. In addition, more than 70 percent of those who responded were female, which may have skewed the results.
Other research has shown that people who show avoidant attachment styles seem to dislike slow, caressing touch or cuddling. But some studies suggest that receiving touch is correlated with better well-being, regardless of attachment style.
Physical contact is known to have numerous health benefits. There is less research specifically on hugs, but some studies have shown they can help lower stress, improve mood and lower markers of inflammation.
Brooke C. Feeney, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University who was not involved in Dr. Dueren’s study, has found in her research that affectionate touch encourages feelings of security and safety, reduces stress and pain, and may even decrease the amount of jealousy that someone feels in a relationship.
“Interestingly, we find benefits for both imagined touch and actual touch,” Dr. Feeney said, referring to the process of asking study participants to visualize receiving affectionate, supportive touch.
Self-touch is also healthy, said Tiffany Field, a professor in the departments of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of Miami, who has researched touch for decades.
Studies have shown that “brushing” your skin or massaging yourself using hands or elbows can stimulate the skin’s pressure receptors, which starts a “cascade” of beneficial physical and mental effects, Dr. Field said.
“Everyone needs a daily dose of touch,” she added.
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