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The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

theswaddle.com

11–20 of 114 posts

Re: The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

#12
Best hug for me is no hug, thanks.

I would bet 95% of the human beings never hugs except between lovers or parents and their kids. I would bet hug is very much a North American thing. I'm French and hate hugs (we kiss on the cheeks, which feels less intrusive to me, but is crasy intrusive in most non-Latin countries).

I live in China and, in normal settings, people here won't hug, won't kiss and won't even shake hands (Unrelated to any ongoing pandemic.) I think it is the same in Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc. Hugs between stars at international movie festivals do not reflect real people's life.

Re: The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

#13
The article says

>However, if two people were of nearly the same height, the “neck-waist approach” was found to be slightly more common than when their heights differed drastically.

and it links to a different article[1] that says

>they guess that neck-waist might be more common when heights differ more drastically.

One article says neck-waist is most common when heights are the same, the other says neck-waist is most common when heights are different. So the articles contradict each other.

Intuitively I would think neck-waist would be most common when heights are different because the tall person would hug around the neck and the short person would hug around the waist.

[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/how-hug-according-sc...

Re: The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

#14
Slightly off-topic: I’m a professional dancer, we specifically train hugging.

For contemporary dance, because it’s an important skill for a lot of partnering moves, like jumps involving two persons (an example of partnering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1BbxTWsoO4&t=13s). One important detail I found interesting is that for contemporary dancers, it’s not only about the arms, but how to use the whole body for the hug. Many people in everyday life unconsciously lean forward while hugging to keep some distance between their hips. Close hips feel much to intimate in Western culture for most people. We trained to not do that. Instead we trained to stand with slightly offset feet, so we could stand very close to each other and stay upright and to hug with the whole body. This is both aesthetically and especially biomechanically advantageous for dance.

Similarly in couple dances like Tango the quality of the hug is very important. I remember many female Tango friends would praise an experienced dancer for his abrazo before anything else.

Re: The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

#15
post #10

Friends: one arm over, one under. Praise or love: both arms under. Comforting: both arms over.

Then, by definition, one of the participants will always be praising and the other will be comforting, unless you use the cross-hug.

well hugs can be directional or mutual too.

two friends hug each other, mutually. a comforting partner gives their partner a hug, who receives it. a parent praises their child with a hug.

Re: The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

#16
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then, by definition, one of the participants will always be praising and the other will be comforting, unless you use the cross-hug.

well hugs can be directional or mutual too. two friends hug each other, mutually. a comforting partner gives their partner a hug, who receives it. a parent praises their child with a hug.

Yeah but if you go with "arm position means X", it can only be that for one of the two people.

Re: The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

#19
post #6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you'd bothered to read the article you'd have discovered there was no real difference in hug types, and that they were explained perfectly by the text. Instead you skimmed it for pictures like a 5 year old and whined when there weren't any. Be better.

If you had bothered to notice that other people do things differently you’d realize that some of us always skim a text before deciding on if it’s worth our attention. Sometimes we win by not wasting our time, sometimes you win by reading something interesting that looked boring on the surface. Don’t be so judgmental.

I absolutely will judge someone who calls the way an article is written "dumb" like an entitled brat

Re: The Best Way to Hug Someone, According to Science

#20

I think the different hug styles also depend on the heights of the individuals. I personally think it's tough for a criss-cross hug approach when the height differential is more than a foot.

I’m over 2m tall (2.08m / 6’10) and I once almost broke the nose of one of my friends with my shoulder trying to give him a hug.. Needless to say I’m a lot more careful now

"I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other."

-Frank M.

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