Hug Away Infection

Social support has been suggested to exert a protective effect against stress-induced susceptibility to disease.  Sheldon Cohen, from Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania, USA), and colleagues investigated whether hugs – an expression of social support – could protect stressed people from getting sick.  The team asked 404 healthy adults to complete a questionnaire, and interviewed the subjects as to the frequencies of interpersonal conflicts and receiving hugs during a period of 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.  Notably, hugs were responsible for one-third of the protective effect of social support.  Observing that: “Among infected participants, greater perceived support and more-frequent hugs each predicted less-severe illness signs,” the study authors submit that: “These data suggest that hugging may effectively convey social support.”