Regular embraces from their partners may help women significantly more than males.
Researchers from Germany's Ruhr University Bochum recruited 76 people in intimate relationships to take part in a stress-inducing test
in which they were asked to keep one hand in an ice bath for three minutes while being observed.
Half of the couples were told to embrace before the test, while the other half were told not to. Participants' salivary cortisol levels were among the stress markers examined by the researchers.
Women who embraced their partners had reduced biological stress reactions, according to the researchers. Men, on the other hand, did not show the same effect.