HUGS HELP PROTECT AGAINST STRESS, INFECTION
Instead of an apple,
could a hug-a-day keep the doctor away? According to new research from Carnegie
Mellon University, that may not be that far-fetched of an idea.
Led by Sheldon Cohen,
the Robert E. Doherty University Professor of Psychology in CMU's Dietrich
College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the researchers tested whether hugs
act as a form of social support, protecting stressed people from getting sick.
Published in Psychological Science, they found that greater social
support and more frequent hugs protected people from the increased
susceptibility to infection associated with being stressed and resulted in less
severe illness symptoms.
Cohen and his team
chose to study hugging as an example of social support because hugs are
typically a marker of having a more intimate and close relationship with
another person.
"We know that
people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off
cold viruses. We also know that people who report having social support are
partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as
depression and anxiety," said Cohen. "We tested whether perceptions
of social support are equally effective in protecting us from stress-induced
susceptibility to infection and also whether receiving hugs might partially
account for those feelings of support and themselves protect a person against
infection."
In 404 healthy adults,
perceived support was assessed by a questionnaire, and frequencies of
interpersonal conflicts and receiving hugs were derived from telephone
interviews conducted on 14 consecutive evenings. Then, the participants were
intentionally exposed to a common cold virus and monitored in quarantine to
assess infection and signs of illness.
The results showed
that perceived social support reduced the risk of infection associated with
experiencing conflicts. Hugs were responsible for one-third of the protective
effect of social support. Among infected participants, greater perceived social
support and more frequent hugs both resulted in less severe illness symptoms
whether or not they experienced conflicts.
"This suggests
that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of
conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an
effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress," Cohen
said. "The apparent protective effect of hugs may be attributable to the
physical contact itself or to hugging being a behavioral indicator of support
and intimacy."
Cohen added,
"Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from
infection."
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