Summary:
A massive psychological survey of over 15,000 UK adults published in PLOS One reveals that nearly 70% of people remember hugs primarily for their comfort, emotional support, and sense of mutual understanding. Researchers from the University of Bristol identified key psychological traits that govern the emotional salience of social touch. Individuals with higher cognitive and emotional empathy, greater body awareness, and anxious attachment styles were significantly more likely to form lasting positive memories of hugs, whereas avoidant independence and touch aversion blunted emotional recall.
Key Facts:
- Lasting Emotional Salience: Approximately 70% of 15,049 surveyed adults recalled hugs as emotionally meaningful interactions characterized by comfort and security.
- Psychological Predictors: Higher scores in emotional and cognitive empathy, heightened somatic body perception, and frequent greeting hugs strongly predicted remembering hugs for their positive emotional value.
- Attachment and Independence: Participants exhibiting high relationship independence (avoidant attachment) were less likely to retain emotionally positive memories of hugs, whereas separation distress (anxious attachment) correlated with heightened emotional value placed on physical embrace.
Source: University of Bristol / PLOS
Hugging serves as one of humanity’s most universal nonverbal communication channels. As an essential form of social touch, gentle physical embraces stimulate tactile C-tactile afferent nerve fibers, buffer systemic physiological stress responses, reduce heart rate, and stimulate the release of oxytocin.
Yet despite its recognized benefits for physical and mental well-being, interpersonal touch is experienced heterogeneously: while an embrace offers profound comfort to one person, it can evoke stiffness, awkwardness, or discomfort in another.
Until now, cognitive psychologists and affective neuroscientists have lacked empirical clarity on which psychological dimensions determine whether an embrace leaves an enduring emotional impression.
In a study published October 28, 2026, in the open-access journal PLOS One, a research team led by Anna Lena Dueren at the University of Bristol investigated the individual traits and perceptual factors that shape autobiographical memories of social touch.
Assessing Touch Across 15,000 Individuals
To capture the emotional nuances of physical contact at scale, Dueren and colleagues recruited 15,049 healthy UK adults across public broadcasting networks and nationwide media platforms. Participants completed a comprehensive psychometric assessment mapping their hugging frequencies, somatic body awareness, attachment behaviors, trait empathy, and detailed recollections of past embraces.
The overarching data confirmed the soothing role of interpersonal touch: nearly 70% of respondents reported remembering hugs primarily for their positive emotional impact, particularly feelings of solace, validation, and safety.
However, the authors noted clear divergences based on core psychological phenotypes:
- Empathy: Participants demonstrating elevated levels of both cognitive empathy (the ability to understand another’s perspective) and affective empathy (the capacity to physically share another’s feelings) were far more likely to retain meaningful memories of hugs.
- Body Perception: Higher scores on standardized body-perception metrics, which measure how consciously individuals integrate somatic sensations and cutaneous touch into their body schema, were strongly correlated with positive hug memories.
- Habitual Practice: Everyday social habits played a direct role; individuals who routinely greet friends and relatives with embraces retained more positive touch memories, whereas those who reported uncertainty about hugging mechanics or expressed touch aversion exhibited diminished recall of emotional comfort.
Attachment Styles: Seeking Connection vs. Self-Reliance
The team observed a pronounced relationship between adult attachment orientations and the psychological value attributed to hugs.
Participants exhibiting high relational independence, a hallmark of avoidant attachment styles characterized by emotional self-reliance and interpersonal distancing, were significantly less inclined to remember hugs as emotionally rewarding.
In contrast, individuals scoring higher in separation anxiety, who frequently worry about emotional distance and crave close reassurance, consistently recalled hugs as salient, supportive, and emotionally grounding experiences.
“We hope our findings will help explain why hugs are perceived differently from person to person,” the authors noted. “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.”
Methodological Context and the Science of Touch
The authors caution that the findings reflect a sample composed of 75% women in a Western society, where attitudes toward interpersonal distance and tactile boundaries may differ substantially from other cultures.
Furthermore, because the survey utilized a cross-sectional design, it establishes correlations rather than direct causal pathways between underlying personality architecture and the neurological consolidation of touch memories.
Nevertheless, the investigation bridges social psychology and tactile neurobiology, providing an empirical roadmap showing that our memory of a hug is determined not merely by the physical mechanics of the embrace, but by the internal lens of our empathy, attachment style, and bodily self-awareness.
Funding: MJB was supported by the ESRC [ES/R007527/1] and Leverhulme Trust [RF-2025-350]. The Touch Test was commissioned by the Wellcome Collection. AF’s time was supported by a European Research Council Consolidator Award [ERC-2018-COG-818070] and under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Consolidator grant agreement No 818070 for project METABODY). There was no additional external funding received for this study.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- Journal paper reviewed in full.
- Additional context added by our staff.
About this social neuroscience Research:
- Media Contact: Hanna Abdallah
- Source: PLOS
- Image Credit: Image credited to Neuroscience News
- Original Research is Open Access: PLOS One (Oct 1, 2026). “Why we hug: Individual differences predict emotional touch memories.” Authors: Anna Lena Dueren, Paul M. Jenkinson, Aikaterini Vafeiadou, Athanasios Koukoutsakis, Claudia Hammond, Natalie C. Bowling, Aikaterini Fotopoulou, and Michael J. Banissy.
- DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0359868
Abstract
Why we hug: Individual differences predict emotional touch memories
Hugging is a ubiquitous form of social touch, yet little is known about how individual differences shape the remembrance of such experiences. In a large-scale survey (N = 15,049), we investigated whether various traits predict the likelihood of recalling a hug for its positive emotional impact and the reasons why it was remembered.
Participants were recruited through promotion on public broadcasting programs (BBC) and other media. Overall, 69.5% of participants reported recalling a hug for its positive emotional impact.
In regression analyses, empathy, body perception, and attachment-related anxiety were associated with a higher likelihood of such recall, whereas attachment-related avoidance was associated with a lower likelihood. Men were more likely than women to report physically arousing hugs as the most memorable.
These findings suggest that hugs are predominantly remembered because they convey comfort, support, and understanding, and that individual differences shape autobiographical memories of hugging.
