Pro Tip: Hug Right by Hugging Left for Valentine’s

Hugging can take place for many reasons; to show love and affection, to greet an acquaintance, to provide consolation during difficult times. Knowing that emotions play a great role in hugging, two experiments were conducted to determine if emotional contexts had an influence on hugging-side. Research has indicated that emotions may be lateralized in the brain. That is, certain emotions promote more activity in one hemisphere than the other.

There are two hypotheses that may account for a bias in hugging side. The first is the Right Hemisphere hypothesis (RHH), which states that emotional processing, regardless of positive or negative associations, is generally more active within the right hemisphere. It is important to note that the brain and body are crisscrossed; the right hemisphere is in charge of the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere dictates the right side of the body. If RHH were true, emotional hugging should then show a left-side bias. The second hypothesis is the Valence-Specific hypothesis, which suggests that the right hemisphere is associated with negative emotions, while the left is involved with positive ones. If this were true, then left-side hugging would be seen in sad (negative) situations, and right side hugs would be used during joyful times.

To see how emotions influence hugging direction, Packheiser and colleagues used two experiments. Their first experiment involved observing people at an airport hugging inside either the departure gate entries or the terminals for international arrivals. Hugs at the departure gate were associated with negative-emotions, including leaving your loved ones and a fear of flying. International arrivals signified positive emotions of reuniting with family and landing safely. The study also observed “neutral” hugs through YouTube videos of people blindfolding themselves and asking for hugs in public. Hugging side was determined by the upper hand located above/next to the shoulder of the hugging partner. Results from this observational study showed that right-sided hugs were seen more than left ones. However, neutral situations had a 91% right-side bias, while emotional situations only showed this bias at 80-81%. This difference shows that left-sided hugs were seen more in emotional situations, regardless of departure or arrival, aligning with the RHH.

The second experiment was conducted in a laboratory where participants had to listen to stories while standing in front of a mannequin. These stories were intended to provoke neutral, positive, or negative emotions, and after each story, the participants had to hug the mannequin. Results from this experiment were similar to the observational study! There was an overall right-side bias among all participants, but emotional stories were associated with more left-sided hugs than the neutral stories. These two studies indicate the profound influence of emotion when it comes to initiating movements for hugging, showing that we may wear our hearts on our sleeves more than we would expect.

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Source:

• Packheiser, J., Rook, N., Dursun, Z., Mesenhöller, J., Wenglorz, A., Güntürkün, O., & Ocklenburg, S. (2018). Embracing your emotions: affective state impacts lateralisation of human embraces. Psychological research, 1-11.