Hot cuppa makes you feel good about others

Feeling physical warmth doesn't just make us see others as warmer people, but also causes us to be more generous and trusting, say researchers (Source: iStockphoto)

Friday, 24 October 2008 ABC/AFP

Our judgement of someone's character can be influenced by something as simple as the temperature of a drink held in our hands, say US researchers.

Psychologist Professor John Bargh from Yale University, Connecticut and Dr Lawrence Williams of the University of Colorado report their findings today in the journal Science.

Psychologists have long noted the importance of warm physical contact with caregivers in developing healthy relationships as adults. So Bargh and Williams decided to test the impact of warmth on the perceptions of adults.

To test their hypothesis about the importance of temperature, research assistants casually asked undergraduate test subjects to briefly hold either a warm cup of coffee or iced coffee as they wrote down information.

The subjects were then given a packet of information about an individual and then asked to assess his or her personality traits.

The participants assessed the person as significantly "warmer" if they had previously held the warm cup of coffee rather than the iced cup of coffee.

On personality scales unrelated to the trait of "warmth," the researchers found no difference in how participants who held an iced, versus hot, coffee responded.

In a second study, participants held heated or frozen therapeutic packs as part of a product evaluation study and were then were told they could receive a gift certificate for a friend or a gift for themselves.

Those who held the hot pack were more likely to ask for the gift certificate, while those who held the frozen pack tended to keep the gift for themselves.

"It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others, it affects our own behaviour as well," says Bargh.

"Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer - more generous and trusting - as well."

Echoes of mother-child relationship

The research team built on earlier studies that show the physical distance between individuals also influence social judgment about others.

The experiment suggests that the warmth of an object or the distance that is felt between people amounts to more than simple metaphors. Both instances, researchers say, are literal examples of trust first experienced between mother and child during infancy.

"It's at the same time subtle and very powerful - a repeated association of physical warmth that is learned over a lifetime," says Williams, an assistant professor of marketing.

He says the research could have marketing implications because it shows just how strong the bond is between the physical and the psychological world.

"In a point-of-service or communications interaction, paying attention to the fact that customers are tied to the physical world in which buying behaviour occurs is important," says Williams.
"If you are running a promotion outdoors on a cold day, maybe giving away a warm cookie will help you make connections with consumers. It gives marketers and managers more tools to work with."

Brain imaging

Bargh says the power of temperature on character assessments has been backed up by recent brain imaging studies.

For instance, the experience of hot or cold stimulus has been shown to trigger strong activity in the insular cortex.

Researchers have also implicated the same area of the brain in borderline personality disorder, a debilitating illness characterised by an inability to cooperate and near complete inability to determine whom to trust.

The study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health.