Romantic partner embraces reduce cortisol release after acute stress induction in women but not in men.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Controlled experimental trial testing an acute behavioral intervention against a control group.
PubMed 35584124 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266887
What was done
Investigators evaluated the stress-buffering effect of a short-term romantic partner embrace prior to acute laboratory stress induced via the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test. Participants were assigned to either receive an embrace from their romantic partner or undergo a control condition without an embrace. Measured outcomes included cortisol release, blood pressure (sympathetic nervous system activation), and subjective affect ratings in both men and women.
What was found
The abstract reports directional findings without numerical values, effect sizes, or p-values. Women who received a partner embrace prior to stress demonstrated a reduced cortisol response compared to control women. No stress-buffering effect on cortisol was observed in men. Neither men nor women showed significant differences between the embrace and control groups in blood pressure or subjective affect ratings.
Why it matters
The findings indicate that brief interpersonal touch from a romantic partner may selectively attenuate endocrine stress reactivity in women before acute evaluative stressors.
Limits
The abstract reports no sample size, participant demographics, or quantitative metrics (means, standard deviations, or effect sizes). The intervention did not alter subjective affect or autonomic stress markers, and acute laboratory cold-pressor stress may not generalize to naturalistic interpersonal stress.
Cited by
- supports Hugging a partner for at least 20 seconds helps alleviate stress and interrupt the physiological stress response.