According to new research conducted by two Yale University psychologists, the physical sensation of drinking something warm causes us to feel “warm” emotionally. Cold drinks, on the other hand, cause us to behave much more rationally, and experience more emotional detachment in our decision-making. The research, published in Science magazine and reported by Time.com, represents the first time the sensations of warm and cold have been analyzed in connection with our emotional state.
Lawrence E. Williams and Jon A. Bargh are the authors of the study, which determined that the sensation of warmth or cold causes extra activity in the insula, a small area of the brain used when evaluating situations and people and determining who we can trust.
The feeling of being warm or cool emotionally is a common perception in many different cultures and languages. In general, we judge those who are more outgoing and emotionally involved as having a perceived degree of “warmth.” Those who are more introverted, and display greater detachment from their emotions are commonly perceived to be “cold.” But for the first time, the research by Williams and Bargh has demonstrated that the physical sensation of warmth or coldness is directly correlated with the emotional feeling of warmth or coldness.
The two researchers devised an experiment using 41 college students. During the study, the students were taken by elevator to a room on the fourth floor of the building. While in the elevator, an assistant handed each student either a hot cup containing coffee, or an ice cold drink. When the students arrived on the fourth floor, they were asked to rate each other as being either “warm” or “cold” people.
The results of the research were surprising, to say the least. Students who had been handed a warm cup of coffee were rated as warm people by their peers. Those who had been handed an ice cold drink were rated as emotionally colder than others.
Researchers say this phenomenon is due to the fact that humans tend to incorporate physical sensations into their abstract thoughts. So if a person is associated with a warm drink, we tend to (perhaps mistakenly) assume they are a warm person.
A second experiment involved hot and cold packs used in the treatment of muscle pain. Students were asked to hold one of the packs, and were told they could receive a gift certificate for either themselves or for a friend. The results of the study showed that students who held the warm packs tended to request a gift certificate for a friend, not themselves. Students who had held the cold pack tended to keep the gift certificate for themselves, and emotionally “colder” response.
The research suggests that physical temperature affects our behavior and perception to a great extent. It would appear that feeling warm physically actually causes us to behave warmer, and exhibit a more trusting and generous attitude toward others.
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