[coldtea]

>I would bet 95% of the human beings never hugs except between lovers or parents and their kids.

And you'd be wrong. Hugging might not be big in your parts, but is a part of many cultures all around the world. Hardly a 5% rarity.

>Hugs between stars at international movie festivals do not reflect real people's life.

Nor do norms in a few countries.

I've travelled extensively, and I not sure where you got the idea that hugs are something only/mainly happening "between stars at international movie festivals".

From what I see "In traditional Chinese culture, hugging is not acceptable, particularly between people of the opposite sex. As Yang Chunmei, a professor at Qufu Normal University, has written, "public displays of affection are a source of embarrassment." Even among spouses, hugging, kissing, or holding hands in public is odd.".

But that's not universal. And even in China it apparently changes, if we're to believe this article:

https://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/more-hugs-pl...

[Baeocystin]

I've lived all over the place, and spent my childhood in SE Asia. While aspects of the respective cultures are more reserved about PDAs than the US, hugs were commonplace between friends and family of all ages, not just kids or spouses, pretty much everywhere. Some people don't like it, and that's fine and should be respected. But as far as I experienced, both personally and by observation, the majority do.

[cainxinth]

This goes beyond human culture. Virtually all primates hug. Humans are primates. Heck, I think most mammals are into cuddling.

[gbog]

Maybe I was wrong but what I understand by "hug" is the fact to hold someone chest to chest, arms on the back of each other. I do not mean kids being held in the arms of their parents or lovers loving each other, or people holding hands or anything else. Then I maintain that this activity is reserved to very rare occasions, usually reserved to extreme emotion peaks, for instance at a burial of a close friend's relative, or when the national sports team win the gold.

To me, when meeting a friend or colleague at the first of the day, each culture has its own "hello sign" system, for French people it can be the kiss on the cheek or hand shaking (with many variants), for Chinese people it is a look in the eyes and "hi" with the hand or "吃了没?", for many other people (Germans?) it is purely hand shaking, and as far as I can guess the "hello = hug" is common in the USA.

I still do not think this "hello = hug" is universal or even the behavior of above 10% of the humans. I think most americans might believe it is nearly universal and always acceptable because nobody dares refusing the hug when they do it. It is actually very hard to stop a coming hug without becoming the very bad cold blooded person that has no feeling at all for others (personal experience here).