New Insights on Hugs

A further advance in the long, difficult attempt to begin understanding what hugging is and what it might mean:

“Meanings of hugging: From greeting behavior to touching implications,” Lena M. Forsell and Jan A. Åström, Comprehensive Psychology, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2012. The authors, in Stockholm and Linköping, Sweden, explain:

“The aim and focus of this article is to present some circumstances under which hugging occurs, as well as to describe its development from a focus on greeting behavior to therapeutic effects, reflected in emotional, physiological, and biochemical alterations…. Based on published literature as well as personal observation, the article points to the fact that hugging is not only a part of greeting behavior, but also has its place as a display of empathy and/or gratitude.”

BONUS: Here is a video, made by other persons, possibly propagandists, about hugs: