The terms “cold” and “warm” when associated with a person offer a very wide interpretation of that specific person, as these values are present in most of the world’s cultures. Recent studies show that these two terms are actually more connected to reality than we originally expected, as people develop “cold” or “warm” personalities depending on their childhood experiences and some experiments show that depending on a momentarily encounter with warmth or cold can affect how we take certain decisions.

The study shows that the physical sensation of warmth is enabling people to be warmer from an emotional point of view while the sensation of cold influences people to be more calculated in their decisions.

Scientists conducted two experiments in order to test this “temperature theory.” The first one consisted in people riding an elevator to a superior floor where they will be asked to grade another person riding along with them in the elevator. The experiment showed clearly that people that held warm drinks in their hands described that person as “warm”, while those holding ice drinks went for a more “cold” description.

Psychology always treated with great attention how people perceive and act according to warmth, this being an important factor in social relationships. Another experiment consisted of people holding heated or frozen packs after which they were put in the position to offer a gift or accept it for themselves. The results showed that those holding the heated packs opted for giving the gift to a friend while the ones who held the frozen packs preferred to keep the gift for themselves.

The conclusions of the experiments and the whole study are that important decisions are to be made with a cold drink in hand while more sentimental actions are best conducted with a warm drink in hand.