Jolly good post, and you'll forgive me if I just smile, nod, and hit the "like" button.
Cross cultural research has people from tense countries like France standing much closer, touching much more frequently, and showing much more emotion and aggression to everyday events than people from reserved countries like Sweden. Even informal nonscientists have observed things like this; Gesteland's "Expressive" cultures are mostly Mediterranean/Romance cultures where (I find, in research I may post someday) speech has a high syllabic rate and emotions run high.
In other words, the transition from non-hug to hug norms signifies an increase in tension/expressiveness/emotionality in Anglophone cultures. On the one hand, it may leaves people like us high and dry; on the other, emotional expressiveness probably keeps the heart healthy - or at least, that was the explanation once given by a sociologist trying to explain the French Paradox.
Thank you for sharing this. I love social hugs and hugging in general but I'm not good at social hugs. Reading your article has helped me to make it a personal goal to improve in this area of social etiquette because as lover of the act through background culture this feels like a real shortcoming.
Jolly good post, and you'll forgive me if I just smile, nod, and hit the "like" button.
Cross cultural research has people from tense countries like France standing much closer, touching much more frequently, and showing much more emotion and aggression to everyday events than people from reserved countries like Sweden. Even informal nonscientists have observed things like this; Gesteland's "Expressive" cultures are mostly Mediterranean/Romance cultures where (I find, in research I may post someday) speech has a high syllabic rate and emotions run high.
In other words, the transition from non-hug to hug norms signifies an increase in tension/expressiveness/emotionality in Anglophone cultures. On the one hand, it may leaves people like us high and dry; on the other, emotional expressiveness probably keeps the heart healthy - or at least, that was the explanation once given by a sociologist trying to explain the French Paradox.
Thank you for sharing this. I love social hugs and hugging in general but I'm not good at social hugs. Reading your article has helped me to make it a personal goal to improve in this area of social etiquette because as lover of the act through background culture this feels like a real shortcoming.