Infants deprived of touch typically experience developmental delays. Their growth is often impaired, as is their cognitive development. Rates of serious infections and attachment disorders also increase in children who have been deprived of this apparently innate need.
There are other signs, too, that touch is much more powerful than perhaps we give it credit for. When premature infants are held, skin-to-skin, by their mothers, they have better cognitive skills, are more resilient to stress, and show more organized sleep, among other benefits, even 10 years later.
This might be construed as a benefit more of maternal contact than touch, but even studies on nurses giving infant massage show the babies benefit from touch, even when it’s from a stranger (they have increased weight gain and earlier discharge from the hospital, for starters).
Even nonhuman primates may spend up to 20 percent of their day grooming each other. We are born with this need for touch, but many of us are now touch deprived. One study found that people in France touch each other an average of 110 times per hour during conversation. In the US, that dropped to two times and in England, zero.
As for hugs, perhaps the “Holy Grail” of touch, one study found that one-third of people receive no hugs on a daily basis while 75 percent said they wanted more hugs. This isn’t only a recipe for loneliness … it might increase your risk of catching a cold, too.
More Hugs Might Help Keep Infections Away
It’s been shown that people who are under stress and in conflict with others are more susceptible to viruses like the common cold. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University set out to determine whether social support, as gauged by hugging, might in turn be protective against such infections.
It turns out their hypothesis was right. Among 404 adults, those who had greater social support and more frequent hugs during conflicts were less likely to “catch” a cold after they were exposed to the virus. The hugs, researchers said, were responsible for about one-third of the protective effect.
According to the study’s lead researcher:
“This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress…
The apparent protective effect of hugs may be attributable to the physical contact itself or to hugging being a behavioral indicator of support and intimacy… Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection.”
