Rte Radio 1

Research has found that hugging it out in the mornings reduces stress dramatically, but not apparently for men.

Hugging trees could also work, hugging animals could again work, especially in all of these contexts of doing it for the right reasons." As with all pieces of one-off research, we just don't know, says Hand. "There is a theory that these researchers want to explore further, which is that women are known in a more general sense to get higher levels of pleasure from what they call gentle touch. If somebody was to simulate a hug with us and we distrust them for whatever reason, it's going to have the opposite effect on us, where we're going to feel as if we're being preyed upon.