Cold hands, warm heart? That was long time ago. You’d better try the other way round: warm hands, warm heart. A new study says there is a connection between physical and emotional heat. The association dates back in childhood, when the physical warmth of being held and hugged is connected to food, a feeling of safety and love.

A hot cup of coffee or a warm bath might work just like Marcel Proust’s small, buttery cakes. One bite into the madeleine triggers a flood of memories of youth spent in the town of Illiers. A hot pot might activate memories of emotions such as safety and trust, first experienced between mother and child during infancy.

The research from Yale University, to be published today in the journal Science, is the latest to study the connection between physical warmth and emotional perception. To test this connection, Lawrence E. Williams, a University of Colorado at Boulder assistant professor of marketing, and colleagues designed an experiment in which 41 volunteers were asked to hold a hot cup of coffee or one of iced coffee on the road from the lobby to the laboratory. They were then asked to rate the personality of an unidentified person whom researchers described as skilful, industrious, determined, practical and cautious.

Those who held the warm coffee were significantly more likely to rate the character as a warm, sociable and generous person. But the warmth of the drink had no impact on how they evaluated other personality traits. They gave the character an average score of 4.7 on an average scale of seven points, while participants who held the iced coffee gave the stranger the average score of 4.3 on the same scale.

In a second study, 53 participants were given heated or frozen therapeutic pads believing they were evaluating a medical product. After completing a questionnaire about the pads, they were offered a choice of drink for themselves or a product they could give to a friend; as a reward, participants had the opportunity to choose between a cold drink and an ice cream that they could either keep for themselves or give to a friend.

54% of those who held the hot pad chose the reward to share with someone, and 46% a reward for themselves. Of those who had touched the cold pad, 25% chose the ice cream or a cold drink for sharing, and 75% picked a product for themselves.

“It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others, it affects our own behavior as well,” said psychology Professor John Bargh from Yale University. Physical warmth can make people see others as warmer and nicer persons, but also cause them to be warmer, more generous and trusting as well. He also noted that a person’s mental processes are not detached from the body.

Keep this in mind and if you want to make a good impression, make sure you have a warm cup or coffee or tea for your interlocutor.