Parting, as we all know, is such sweet sorrow. But if you’re departing from New Zealand’s Dunedin airport your sorrow had better be short and sweet. The international airport recently made global headlines for its new signs limiting hug times at drop-off zones to three minutes. “For fonder farewells please use the car park,” the signs advise. (You get 15 minutes of free parking for your fondling.)
The three-minute hug policy, which came about because too many people were spending far too long – and sometimes being inappropriate – in the drop-off zones, has not been embraced by everyone. Some critics have been whining on Facebook that it is “inhumane” and the “nanny state gone mad”. These are the same people, I imagine, who think it’s a violation of their human rights to have to keep quiet in the train’s quiet car and who generally can’t follow basic rules of social etiquette.
Rather than being inhumane I think three minutes is an extremely reasonable amount of time for a goodbye hug, albeit a somewhat random number. How did they decide on three minutes? I don’t know whether Dunedin spent millions asking McKinsey to do studies quantifying the optimal amount of affection in high-traffic public areas but, in an interview with Radio New Zealand, the airport’s CEO Daniel De Bono did suggest there was some sort of rationale for the number: he quoted a study that suggests a 20-second hug is long enough to release oxytocin – the “love hormone”. In the interests of science, I barged in on my wife while she was working and asked for a timed hug so I could analyse the benefits of hugging for myself. After 49 seconds she told me to go away. So, in short, the data seems to suggest three minutes is more than adequate.
That said, I reckon Dunedin airport missed a trick. Every single aspect of the flying experience has been aggressively split off and monetised, so why not squeeze a little extra cash out of hugs? I’m surprised they didn’t give people the opportunity to buy Passion Priority Passes for a small fee so they could upgrade to a couple of extra minutes of affection. I have a feeling that would have really taken off.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
