Make sure it lasts 20 seconds

SF paper reports:

For all women -- and those who love them -- she offers a tip.

Research shows that the female brain naturally releases oxytocin after a 20-second hug. The embrace bonds the huggers and triggers the brain's trust circuits. So Brizendine advises, don't let a guy hug you unless you plan to trust him.

"And if you do," she said, "make sure it lasts 20 seconds."

A few neurological differences between women and men from Louann Brizendine's "The Female Brain":

Thoughts about sex enter women's brains once every couple of days; for men, thoughts about sex occur every minute.

Women use 20,000 words per day; men use 7,000 per day.

Women excel at knowing what people are feeling; men have difficulty spotting an emotion unless someone cries or threatens bodily harm.

Women remember fights that a man insists never happened.

Women over 50 are more likely to initiate divorce.

I went on several dates with a woman, and I think that it was a mistake to hug her for 20 seconds. Now she trusts me way too much!

On the last date, I was making out with her when her cat demanded to get fed. I said, "the cat can wait". She then launched into a tirade about how I was a control freak.

The odd thing is that she is one of the more controlling women I have ever dated. Just on that date, she had told me when to show up, what to do, where to sit, how to groom myself, what to eat, and what possessions to sell. I was passively cooperating, but it is now clear that there is no way to please her anyway.