← Giant Brain Candy
Giant Brain Candy: A Hand to Hold. Under threat of a mild shock, women’s threat-related brain activity eased when they held a hand: a little for a stranger’s, more for their partner’s, and more still in happier relationships. Source: Holding hands under threat.
Growing evidenceThe research
  1. Coan, J. A., Schaefer, H. S., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1032–1039.

Journey 7 · Uncertainty

A Hand to Hold

Under threat of a mild shock, women’s threat-related brain activity eased when they held a hand: a little for a stranger’s, more for their partner’s, and more still in happier relationships.

Source: Holding hands under threat · Growing evidence

Share this card

Instagram or TikTok: download the picture and post it.

30 days of All-Access, free — every journey and every feature. No card.

Start free — 30 days of All-Access

More from Uncertainty

Giant Brain Candy: A Maybe Can Hurt More. People learning when painful shocks might come felt and showed the most stress when a shock was a 50/50 toss-up, not when it was certain to come. Source: Uncertainty and stress.
Giant Brain Candy: The Worries That Never Came. People treated for chronic worry logged their worries for ten days and checked back 20 days later: 91.4% of the worries had not come true. Source: How often worries come true.
Giant Brain Candy: Check Again, Trust Less. People who checked a virtual gas stove again and again grew less sure they had checked it, as their memories grew less vivid, though their memory stayed just as accurate. Source: Repeated checking and memory.
All of Uncertainty’s Brain Candy, and every other journey’s →