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Abstract
Perceived social support has been hypothesized to protect against the pathogenic effects of stress. How such protection might be conferred, however, is not well understood. Using a sample of 404 healthy adults, we examined the roles of perceived social support and received hugs in buffering against interpersonal stress-induced susceptibility to infectious disease. Perceived support was assessed by questionnaire, and daily interpersonal conflict and receipt of hugs were assessed by telephone interviews on 14 consecutive evenings. Subsequently, participants were exposed to a virus that causes a common cold and were monitored in quarantine to assess infection and illness signs. Perceived support protected against the rise in infection risk associated with increasing frequency of conflict. A similar stress-buffering effect emerged for hugging, which explained 32% of the attenuating effect of support. Among infected participants, greater perceived support and more-frequent hugs each predicted less-severe illness signs. These data suggest that hugging may effectively convey social support.
Highlights
Perceived social support has been hypothesized to protect against the pathogenic effects of stress
Higher levels of perceived support were associated with more frequent hugging (r = 0.37, p < .001), but were unrelated to frequency of experiencing tension/conflict (r = −0.01, p = .86)
Tension and perceived social support—We examined whether % days with tension, perceived social support, and their interaction were associated with severity of two objective signs of illness—nasal mucus weights and nasal mucociliary clearance time
Summary
Perceived social support has been hypothesized to protect against the pathogenic effects of stress. Greater perceived support and more frequent hugs each predicted less severe illness signs. These data suggest that hugging may act as an effective means of conveying support. We examine whether global perceptions of social support and the actual receipt of physical touch during daily life—i.e., being hugged, attenuate the association of an interpersonal stressor (social conflict) with subsequent risk for infection, cold signs, and clinical disease in response to an experimentally administered cold virus. We expect that more frequent conflict will be associated with increased susceptibility These associations will be attenuated (buffered) among those who perceive higher levels of social support and those who receive hugs with greater frequency (see Figure 1a and 1b using infection as example).
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