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We will readily describe a person’s demeanour as “warm” or “cold” but this link between temperature and personality is more than just a metaphorical one. A new study shows that warming a person’s fingertips can also bring out the warmth in their social relationships, pushing them to judge others more positively and promoting their charitable side.
Lawrence Williams at the University of Colorado and John Bargh from Yale University managed to influence the behaviour of a group of 41 volunteers without them knowing it by giving them something warm to hold. When the recruits arrived at the psychology building, a colleague (who wasn’t aware of the experiment’s goals) escorted them to the laboratory and asked them to hold a cup of coffee for her along the way. Once in the lab, they had to read a description of a stranger and rate them on 10 different personality traits.
The cups of coffee were the key element. Half were hot and half were iced, and the volunteers’ brief contact with the cups was enough to sway their later impressions. The recruits...
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