Hug and make up: Hugging after arguing makes you feel better, says study
We feel better after a hug, study finds
We feel better after a hug, study finds
We feel better after a hug, study finds
We鈥檝e all heard advice about how to get over a difficulty quickly. Don鈥檛 talk over each other, wait to bring up contentious issues until you鈥檙e both calm, etc., but there may be actual scientific proof that hugging after an argument will make things a whole lot better.
The study, published in the scientific journal, , was carried out by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. The team, led by Dr. Michael Murphy from the department of psychology at the university, looked at a total of 404 participants for the study.
Over the duration of two weeks, the participants were interviewed about any arguments that they鈥檇 had and whether or not they鈥檇 hugged each other after the altercations and if so, how that felt.
Interestingly, the results showed that those who had decided to embrace after a quarrel were more likely to feel better following an argument than those who hadn鈥檛.
The scientists concluded that this study was a valuable example of how human touch can help to better relationships with others.
Speaking of the findings, they said, 鈥淣onsexual interpersonal touch is emerging as an important topic in the study of adult social relationships.鈥�
鈥淚nterpersonal touch is associated with increased attachment security, greater perceived partner support, enhanced intimacy, higher relationships satisfaction, and easier conflict resolution.
鈥淩eceiving a hug on the day of conflict was associated with improved concurrent negative and positive affect and improved next day negative affect compared to days when conflict occurred but no hug was received.鈥�
The scientists did acknowledge that although hugging clearly has huge benefits, the study did not analyze the results depending on how severe an argument had been or the relationship of the people who were having an argument, for example if they were colleagues or a married couple, so results could vary.
However, they concluded that this body of research is still very useful saying, 鈥淣otwithstanding these limitations, this study contributes to our understanding of the role of interpersonal touch in buffering against deleterious outcomes associated with interpersonal conflict.鈥�