A study of 15,049 UK adults has examined why certain hugs remain vivid in people’s personal memories, finding that nearly seven in ten participants could recall one because of its positive emotional effect.
The research looks at memories and associations rather than measuring whether a hug produces a particular health outcome. Its findings point to the importance of comfort, support and understanding in the hugs people remember, but they do not show that hugging causes better wellbeing or that every person experiences touch in the same way.
A question about remembered experiences
Participants were asked whether there was a hug they remembered because it had a positive emotional effect on them. Of the people who answered that question, 69.5 per cent said yes. The analysis focused on adults in the UK and drew on an online survey conducted in early 2020.
The study did not ask participants to rate a single, standardised hug or observe interactions as they happened. Instead, it explored autobiographical memory: the way people look back on an experience that mattered to them. That distinction is important. A remembered hug may reflect the relationship, setting, timing and events surrounding it as much as the physical contact itself.
Among participants who selected a reason for remembering a hug, comfort was the most common response and physical arousal the least common. Other options included support, friendliness, happiness, a period without touch and a sense of understanding. The pattern suggests that memorable hugs were often connected with reassurance or closeness, rather than simply with the act of embracing.
Associations, not a recipe for connection
The researchers also considered whether personal characteristics were linked with the likelihood of reporting a positively remembered hug. Higher empathy and greater awareness of bodily experience were associated with a higher likelihood of recalling one. People who reported more avoidant patterns around emotional closeness were less likely to do so.
These are statistical associations, not proof that a trait creates a particular memory or that changing a trait would change somebody’s experience of touch. The research design cannot establish cause and effect. It also cannot tell us why a specific embrace was meaningful for any individual participant.
That caution matters in an area where preferences can vary widely. Some people welcome hugs in family life, friendship or moments of support. Others may prefer different forms of care, more personal space or no physical contact at all. The findings describe patterns in a survey group; they are not a social rule about what anyone should want or provide.
Limits on what the study can show
The final sample included adults aged from 18 to 92, but it was not designed to represent every population equally. Women made up about three quarters of the participants, and the researchers note that the results may not apply directly in cultures with different expectations around physical contact and personal space.
The timing of the survey is another consideration. It was completed between January and March 2020, when the early spread of Covid-19 may have affected attitudes towards contact for some respondents. The study also used responses from healthy UK adults who took part online, which limits how far its findings can be extended beyond that group.
Even with those limits, the research offers a useful account of what people say gives a hug emotional weight in memory. It is not a clinical recommendation and does not establish a health benefit from hugging. Its contribution is narrower: it shows that, for many people in this survey, the hugs that endure are tied to feelings of comfort, support and being understood.
