What makes one hug more memorable than another?

By Stephen Beech

Men are more likely than women to find a hug arousing, reveals new research.

But hugs are most memorable when they bring comfort, understanding and support, according to the findings.

The study involving more than 15,000 British adults discovered that individual differences in empathy, attachment patterns in relationships, body perception, and everyday hugging experiences were all related to the likelihood of remembering a hug for its positive emotional effect.

Study lead author Anna Dueren, from the University of Bristol, said hugs are an important form of social touch and have been associated with positive outcomes such as reduced stress and improved mood.

But relatively little was known about the individual differences that affect how people remember hugs.

Dueren and her colleagues investigated whether hugs are generally remembered as “emotionally salient experiences” and whether individual differences are related to emotions linked to hugging.

The researchers analyzed data from a survey of 15,049 healthy U.K. adults, 75% of whom were women.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS One, showed that, overall, nearly 70% of participants remembered hugs for their positive emotional impact.

Dueren said: “Specifically, the results showed that difficulty knowing how to hug and disliking hugging were negatively related to remembering a hug for its positive emotional value.

“The opposite pattern was observed for people who are more likely to greet family and friends by hugging.”

The research team also found that higher scores on cognitive and emotional empathy measures were related to a higher likelihood of remembering a hug.

People who tend to display a higher level of independence in relationships were less likely to remember a hug for its positive emotional value compared with individuals who tend to experience distress when facing separation.

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Participants with higher scores on the body-perception scale, which focuses on the connection between body awareness and touch, were more likely to remember a hug.

Dueren said: “Most participants remembered a hug that had a positive emotional effect on them.

“The most commonly selected reasons for remembering these hugs were comfort, understanding and support.

“We also found that higher scores in empathy and attachment anxiety were related to a slightly higher chance of remembering such a hug.”

She added: “We found that among participants who remembered a hug, men were more likely than women to find it arousing.

“However, arousal was not a common experience associated with hugging overall, so this finding comes from a comparatively small group of participants.”

She said the findings may not apply to people who live in societies with different attitudes toward physical contact and interpersonal distance.

And the study design didn’t allow for firm conclusions on causal relationships between traits, hugging experiences and the formation of hug memories.

However, Dueren says it provides a key overview of psychological factors that shape the meaning of social touch and extends current theoretical work by linking emotional touch to the formation of autobiographical memories.

She added: “We hope our findings will help explain why hugs are perceived differently from person to person.

“A next step would be to further investigate how personality, previous experiences and the context in which a hug occurs shape its perception.

“Ultimately, this could help us better understand when and for whom hugging provides comfort and social support.”