It’s the snuggle struggle.
Kissing, licking, tickling and biting are cool — but the most telltale sign that a person sees you as either a buddy or a main squeeze is in their hug, per new AI-powered data.
“Hugs are an important nonverbal social-affective behavior that plays a crucial role in romantic relationships,” explained study authors from the MSH Medical School Hamburg, Germany, in the September report.
“Results showed that romantic partners hugged longer than platonic friends.”
For the findings, researchers, led by Sebastian Ocklenburg, tapped 60 participants — some friends, others lovers — to repeatedly walk towards and embrace one another.
“Videos of hugs were recorded using 14 high-frequency video cameras,” wrote investigators, adding that the footage was then analyzed “using three-dimensional markerless motion capture software.”
The advanced AI software examined the duration of the hugs, as well as the positioning of specific body parts, like knees and feet, during each squeeze.
“For hugging duration, a significant main effect of relationship status emerged, indicating that platonic friends hugged for a shorter average duration (2.88 seconds) than romantic couples (7.02 seconds),” investigators revealed.
Body part positions, however, didn’t play a major part in the research.
“For foot distance, knee distance, and pelvis distance, [AI] did not reveal any significant main effects of relationship status or significant interactions with relationship status,” said the experts.
Volunteers also completed a personality questionnaire to determine their levels of neuroticism — a tendency to experience negative emotions like anxiety, anger and sadness — and conscientiousness, a more caring, yet careful trait.
Some neurotic folks created larger distances between themselves and others during the hugs, offering less-tight squeezes.
Conscientious cuddlers, conversely, left smaller spaces between their two bodies, giving tighter hugs.
“The next time you want to know if someone likes you as a friend or maybe a little bit more, pay attention to how long they hug you when saying goodbye,” Ocklenburg told Psychology Today.
“Less than three seconds? You are clearly in the friend zone,” he warned. “Seven seconds or more? They may have more feelings for you than you may have thought.”
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