Virtual interpersonal hugging has been shown to reduce feelings of sadness even without physical contact.
The finding reframes how emotional comfort can operate as daily interactions increasingly move into digital spaces.
Comfort without physical touch
When comfort is delivered through a virtual body rather than human touch, the emotional effect still takes hold within a controlled digital setting.
Working with immersive virtual environments at Southwest University, Dr. Ke Ma documented measurable relief from sadness when participants engaged in a simulated hug with a visible partner.
The effect held even though the interaction occurred entirely on screen, separating the experience of comfort from physical contact itself.
That separation sets a clear boundary for what virtual connection can achieve and points toward deeper questions about which elements of human comfort still matter most.
Creating sadness in lab
To test virtual hugging, the study first brought sadness into the room in a controlled way.
Participants watched short sad films, rated their mood, and wore sensors that tracked skin conductance responses, small electrical changes linked to sweating.
Those readings climb when sweat glands activate under stress, so they can capture emotion even when words get stuck.
Because both measures shifted quickly, the team could see whether the hug affected emotional experience and physical stress at the same time.
A hug needs a target
The experiments separated the movement of hugging from the experience of hugging someone, which set up the key comparison.
"Hugging a virtual target, but not the mere action of hugging, improves the regulation of sad emotion," said Dr. Ke Ma, a cognitive psychologist at Southwest University.
Seeing another figure receive the hug framed the action as social support, which can alter how sadness is processed.
That boundary matters for simple self-hug motions in headsets, because comfort seemed to need a partner-like cue.
Eyes beat simulated touch
Visual cues carried much of the effect, so what participants saw during the hug outweighed what their hands felt.
The researchers reported that haptic information, touch-like feedback from gloves or controllers, did not drive sadness relief in their setup.
Headsets steer attention through sight, and that dominance can make a hug feel real even without physical pressure.
For designers, believable body motion and eye contact may matter more than adding complex hardware to simulate skin.
How embodiment shapes emotion
Researchers describe this link as embodiment, the sense that a virtual body belongs to you, and it can subtly influence emotion.
When movement matches what you see, the brain updates body maps, which can reduce sadness by boosting control.
That added control can soften helplessness, since the hug becomes an intentional act instead of a passive response.
If tracking lags or avatars move awkwardly, the same setup can feel unsettling and erase the sense of comfort.
Across the results, a virtual hug worked best when it felt social, visually convincing, and owned from within.