Hugs can help depression – but will they become taboo?

Is there anything more soulwarming than a hug, especially when you’re feeling lonely and beleaguered? No, according to a new study which – unlike most “scientistssay” studies about everyday life – both makes sense and can be easily implemented. Researchers at UCL found a specific link between “slow, affectionate touch” from a stranger and a reduction in “feelings of social exclusion after social rejection”.

The positive benefits of hug-like physical contact were measured in part by a game in which 84 women played a computerised ball-throwing and catching game with two other participants. After a 10-minute break, the women resumed the game, only to find that they were no longer having balls thrown at them, causing them to feel excluded. They were then blindfolded and stroked – some at a slow, comforting speed and some more quickly and “neutrally”. Those who got the slower caresses felt less excluded and more positive than those who received the rapid, impersonal touches.

In this age of loneliness – when young people lead atomised lives behind their screens, and old people are so often and tragically left to moulder away alone – a study like this becomes important. We’re inundated with grim statistics and stories about depression and alienation; but when it comes to practically improving the lives of the lonely, we’re sorely lacking.

Those who work with the elderly, some of whom are quite isolated, often say a simple touch on the arm or shoulder, or stroke of the hand, is enough to make a visible difference to their demeanour.

I worry, though, that in the current climate of obsessive monitoring of any behaviour that could be deemed sexual harassment, any form of touch is becoming taboo. Will hugs – especially hugging strangers – be seen more as a threat than a good deed?

The way things are going, I fear the answer is a shameful “yes”.