Hugging it out” is perhaps not the tactic that most of us would adopt if we found ourselves face-to-face with a would-be terrorist. But, in an astonishing – and no doubt life-saving – move, this is exactly what 35-year-old patient Nathan Newby did in 2023, after learning that “lone wolf” Mohammad Farooq was planning to detonate a bomb at St James’s Hospital in Leeds with the intention of “kill[ing] as many nurses as possible”.
Newby, who is set to receive the George Medal for his act of bravery, encountered Farooq outside the hospital. When he noticed that the other man seemed agitated, Newby struck up a conversation with him, to try and “cheer him up”, he told the BBC.
When Farooq eventually revealed that he had a bomb in his bag, Newby decided to try and talk him out of the horrific act. “He asked for a cuddle a few times, and I said, ‘Yeah, of course you can,’” he recalled. After their hug, Farooq told Newby to “phone the police before I change my mind”.
Farooq has since been convicted of preparing acts of terrorism, and has been jailed for a minimum of 37 years. A simple embrace, it seems, helped to prevent what could have been a terrible tragedy.
This is, of course, an extreme example, but it certainly seems to demonstrate the sheer power of human touch, even between relative strangers, in one of the most fraught situations imaginable.
Touch is a basic human need – and there is a vast body of research dedicated to exploring just how beneficial it can be. Some experts believe that the impulse to cuddle can be traced all the way back to our primate ancestors. Anyone who has a basic familiarity with nature documentaries will know that apes and monkeys like to groom and stroke one another’s fur as a form of social bonding.
A hug stimulates the C-tactile afferent fibres, the nerve receptors found in the skin, which respond especially well to light touch at a speed of three to five centimetres per second. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system and releases the bonding hormone oxytocin, along with other feelgood endorphins.
Essentially, “touch has a direct line to the brain’s calming system”, as Dr Michael Swift, founder of Swift Psychology and a spokesperson for the British Psychological Society, puts it. As the nerve fibres send signals to areas of the brain associated with emotion and safety, he explains, “a hug can feel soothing almost instantly, rather than being something we have to ‘think’ our way into”.
There are, of course, different forms of touch – an accidental jab or a push, say, from an unruly fellow commuter does not set off the same response as more meaningful contact. The length of a hug also affects the potential health benefits, too, notes Dr Ravi Lukha, medical director at Bupa. Ten seconds, he says, “can help make you feel more alert, help your body fight infections, and reduce your chance of experiencing feelings of depression”.
A hug that’s double that duration, he adds, “can be particularly beneficial for your heart health, including reducing your stress levels and blood pressure”.
The benefits of touch begin in childhood. “From early life onwards, consistent, warm touch helps build a sense of security,” Swift says. From the moment we are born, skin-to-skin contact, typically with a parent, can help regulate a baby’s heart rate, breathing and temperature, and is even linked to a decrease in crying.
A hug can feel soothing almost instantly, rather than being something we have to ‘think’ our way into
And as adults, touch “continues to act as a shorthand for trust and reassurance, especially during moments of uncertainty or distress”, Swift adds. One famous 2006 study from the University of Virginia found that when women were facing stress, holding their partner’s hand provided them with immediate relief.
More recently, in 2022, German researchers analysed 36 young couples, and noticed that when women had hugged their male partners beforehand, their levels of the stress hormone cortisol rose less when they completed a test designed to stress them out.
Indeed, the advantages of touch tend to be enhanced when we have a good relationship with the other person – although an intriguing piece of research from UCL in 2017 found that “slow, gentle stroking by a stranger” can still decrease our feelings of social exclusion after we’ve been rejected.
There’s even some evidence to suggest that hugging might boost our immune system. One study by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh discovered that people who hugged regularly in the fortnight before being exposed to the common cold virus were less likely to become infected compared with those who didn’t hug; their symptoms were also less severe in comparison, and they recovered more easily.
And a longitudinal study from 2021, tracking older American adults over an extended period of time, found that those who reported more hugging and touch from their loved ones were less likely to experience chronic inflammation in later life.
Conversely, an absence of touching and hugging has also been associated with higher physiological stress, due to elevated levels of the hormone cortisol. During the Covid-19 lockdowns six years ago, when touching anyone outside of your housing “bubble” was an absolute no-no, many people became all too familiar with concepts such as “touch deprivation” and “skin hunger”.
But even before the pandemic, there was talk of a “crisis of touch”. We’re increasingly living our lives online, swapping in-person contact and conversations for scrolling. That tendency has only become more pronounced since Covid. An existence mediated through screens is leaving many of us lonely and touch-starved.
Into this void have stepped a whole bunch of commercial offerings, attempting to fill the gap. The first “cuddle cafes” opened in Japan in 2012, offering customers the chance to pay to hug, hold hands with or even nap beside a member of staff, judgement-free. It’s a trend that has since made its way over to the United States. Even in the emotionally uptight United Kingdom, you can seek out the services of a cuddle therapist offering restorative platonic touch, or even group cuddle sessions.
It’s easy to raise your eyebrows at such offerings. But maybe we could all do with embracing the power of the humble hug.
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