July 28, 2021, 12:07 am More than a third of respondents reported that they have not been hugged for at least half a year (Anna Gowthorpe/PA) One in four adults have not been hugged for more than a year, according to research that suggests people are less likely to build new relationships than they were during the first coronavirus lockdown. A third (32%) of adults feel there are fewer opportunities to make new connections now than there were when the nation first locked down, the think tank Demos found. Its polling of 1,000 UK adults in May found that 23% said they believed there are currently more opportunities, as society opens up from Covid-19 restrictions.