Scientists from Ruhr University found that women instructed to embrace their romantic partner prior to undergoing a stressful experience had a lower biological stress response—as indicated by levels of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva—compared to women who did not embrace their partner.
The research is published in PLOS ONE and was conducted by Gesa Berretz et al.
In some settings, social touch may buffer against stress.
Previous research has shown that massages, embraces combined with hand-holding, and embraces combined with affectionate communication can all reduce signs of stress in women.
In the study, the team conducted an analysis of 76 people in romantic relationships.
All participants underwent a stress-inducing test. Prior to this test, half of the couples were instructed to embrace, and the others did not embrace.
The researchers measured various indicators of stress, including participants’ cortisol levels, before and after the experiment.
The team that women who embraced their partner had a lower cortisol response to the stress test than women who did not embrace their partner.
However, for men, no associations were observed between embrace and stress-induced cortisol response.
These results suggest that a brief embrace with a romantic partner might subsequently reduce the cortisol response of women facing stressful social situations.
Further research could investigate whether this benefit extends to embraces with platonic friends.
The authors also call for research into the related effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such research could explore whether social restrictions that reduced social touch may be associated with observed increases in stress and depression during the pandemic.
If you care about stress, please read studies about supplements that can do double duty in preventing stress, and how chronic stress leads to hair loss.
For more information about mental health, please see recent studies about alcohol abuse linked to common mental disease, and results showing eating too much sugar may lead to dangerous mental problems.
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