Don’t sweat it: Ambient temperature does not affect social behavior and perception

Jan S. Krause, Gerrit Brandt, Ulrich Schmidt and Daniel Schunk

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2023, vol. 99, issue C

Abstract: Literature suggests that human perception and behavior vary with physical temperature. We conducted an experiment to study how different ambient temperatures impact social behavior and perception: subjects undertook a series of tasks measuring various aspects of social behavior and perception under three temperature conditions (cold vs. optimal vs. warm). Despite well-established findings on the effects of temperature, our data suggest that ambient temperature has no relevant influence on social behavior and perception. We corroborate our finding of a null effect using equivalence testing and provide a discussion considering recent failed replication attempts in this field of research and related studies on heat and violence.

Keywords: Social perception; Ambient temperature; Social preference; Equivalence testing; Cooperation; Warmth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D01 D90 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:99:y:2023:i:c:s0167487023000582

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2023.102657

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