Ever since Harry Harlow's studies on contact comfort, psychologists have known that touching warm cuddly things can generate warm cuddly feelings (I recommend the n.a.p Cuddle Blanket from Brookstone... totally worth it). Although he was primarily interested in mother-infant attachment, it looks like the ghost of Harlow has been resurrected in Science this month in a study of physical warmth and likability judgment:
Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal Warmth
"Warmth" is the most powerful personality trait in social judgment, and attachment theorists have stressed the importance of warm physical contact with caregivers during infancy for healthy relationships in adulthood. Intriguingly, recent research in humans points to the involvement of the insula in the processing of both physical temperature and interpersonal warmth (trust) information. Accordingly, we hypothesized that experiences of physical warmth (or coldness) would increase feelings of interpersonal warmth (or coldness), without the person's awareness of this influence. In study 1, participants who briefly held a cup of hot (versus iced) coffee judged a target person as having a "warmer" personality (generous, caring); in study 2, participants holding a hot (versus cold) therapeutic pad were more likely to choose a gift for a friend instead of for themselves.
This comes alongside another study published in Psychological Science (also this month) that showed the causal direction going the other way as well (i.e. feeling sad affects judgment of room temperature):
Cold and Lonely: Does Social Exclusion Literally Feel Cold?
Metaphors such as icy stare depict social exclusion using cold-related concepts; they are not to be taken literally and certainly do not imply reduced temperature. Two experiments, however, revealed that social exclusion literally feels cold. Experiment 1 found that participants who recalled a social exclusion experience gave lower estimates of room temperature than did participants who recalled an inclusion experience. In Experiment 2, social exclusion was directly induced through an on-line virtual interaction, and participants who were excluded reported greater desire for warm food and drink than did participants who were included. These findings are consistent with the embodied view of cognition and support the notion that social perception involves physical and perceptual content. The psychological experience of coldness not only aids understanding of social interaction, but also is an integral part of the experience of social exclusion.
No wonder winter here is so miserable except when I have warm (and free) psych department coffee.
References
Williams, L.E. & Bargh, J.A. (2008). Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth. Science, 322, 606-607
Zhong, C. & Leonardelli, G.J. (2008). Cold and lonely: Does social exclusion literally feel cold? Psychological Science, 19, 838-842.
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