Hugging for the Good of Humanity. People Joining the Free Hugs Campaign at Fandom Conventions Have Lighter, less Dark, and More Prosocial Personalities

The Free Hugs campaign and the phenomenon of people offering "Free Hugs" is becoming increasingly popular today, especially at concerts, festivals, and fandom conventions. However, such offers may cause some people to worry about the huggers' motivations. The study aimed to investigate the level of the Dark and Light Triad and Big Five personality traits in huggers and non-huggers. People (n = 299) engaged in fandom convention culture (132 men, 133 women and 34 non-binary individuals) participated in the study. Engaging in fandom convention culture was defined as attending at least two conventions in the last 12 months. Responses were collected from 62 huggers (21%) and 237 non-huggers (79%). The results show a significantly lower probability (Brunner-Munzel test) for huggers to be more narcissistic than non-huggers. Moreover, there was a significantly higher probability for huggers to be more extroverted, agreeable, humanistic, and have greater faith in humanity than non-huggers. Therefore, the results suggest that the declared intentions of people offering "Free Hugs" are related to prosocial personality traits.