Women facing a stressful event experienced less anxiety when they held their husbands' hands

Christopher Lee:

In the study, 16 married women underwent a series of trials in which they were shown an image of a red X, indicating a 20 percent chance of a mild electric shock to an ankle, or a blue O, indicating no chance of a shock. Each woman variously held the hand of her husband, a stranger or no hand at all.

Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to assess how the women's brains responded. Holding any hand helped relax the women, they found, but holding the spouse's hand had an especially powerful effect.

"Holding any hand at all calms regions of the brain that are responsible for the body's physical stress response," said neuroscientist James A. Coan of the University of Virginia, the study's lead author. "But only the spousal hand affected regions of the brain that are responsible for worrying. ... This is the region which is thought to be associated with your experience of pain."

The findings are in line with other research showing that social ties have beneficial effects on health. Married people are, on average, healthier and happier than unmarried people, researchers have found. And those in the happiest marriages tend to have lower risks of infection and faster recovery from injury than people in less blissful unions. Similarly, although all of the couples in the experiment rated themselves as happily married, women in the most satisfying marriages experienced the most potent calming effect of holding their husbands' hands.

"We discovered that spouses may be acting as a kind of analgesic in the high-quality relationships," Coan said.

This proves that feminists are wrong when they say that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

High-Quality Marriages Help To Calm Nerves

Feeling stressed? Try holding your husband's hand