A researcher investigates whether or not receiving a hug decreases stress, defined as the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) measured in saliva samples, in participants. They separate the groups by gender (male, female, transgender, nonbinary), assign some groups to receive hugs and other groups to not receive hugs. The hugs are defined as arm placement around the participants' shoulders with a moderate pressure and last exactly 5 seconds. The researchers discover that the hugs only decrease cortisol levels when the hugger already has an established relationship or "connection" to the huggee