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.

[1]  A. Meyer-Lindenberg,et al.  Trust Me on This , 2008, Science.

[2]  B. King-Casas,et al.  The Rupture and Repair of Cooperation in Borderline Personality Disorder , 2008, Science.

[3]  Tobias Egner,et al.  Neural Dynamics of Rejection Sensitivity , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[4]  M. Balter.  Brain Evolution Studies Go Micro , 2007, Science.

[5]  Amy J. C. Cuddy,et al.  Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[6]  Hyun Wook Park,et al.  BRAIN ACTIVATION RELATED TO AFFECTIVE DIMENSION DURING THERMAL STIMULATION IN HUMANS: A FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING STUDY , 2007, The International journal of neuroscience.

[7]  Janine Willis,et al.  First Impressions , 2006, Psychological science.

[8]  Matthew D. Lieberman,et al.  Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion , 2003, Science.

[9]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  The Neural Basis of Economic Decision-Making in the Ultimatum Game , 2003, Science.

[10]  T. Insel,et al.  The neurobiology of attachment , 2001, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[11]  J. Bargh,et al.  The perception–behavior expressway: Automatic effects of social perception on social behavior. , 2001 .

[12]  E. Reiman,et al.  Thermosensory activation of insular cortex , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[13]  Åse Innes-Ker,et al.  Emotional response categorization. , 1999 .

[14]  Bogdan Wojciszke,et al.  On the Dominance of Moral Categories in Impression Formation , 1998 .

[15]  Michael A. Becker.  Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles , 1998 .

[16]  R. C. Fraley,et al.  Attachment and Loss , 2018 .

[17]  J. Mandler.  How to build a baby: II. Conceptual primitives. , 1992, Psychological review.

[18]  N. Presmeg.  The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason , 1992 .

[19]  Eve Sweetser,et al.  From Etymology to Pragmatics: Preface , 1990 .

[20]  Leonard Talmy,et al.  Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition , 1987, Cogn. Sci..

[21]  Mark L. Johnson.  The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning , 1987 .

[22]  Timothy D. Wilson,et al.  The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments. , 1977 .

[23]  F. Moore.  Cognitive development and the acquisition of language , 1973 .

[24]  H. Clark,et al.  In cognitive development and the acquisition of language , 1973 .

[25]  R. Tremblay,et al.  On aggression. , 1973, The New England journal of medicine.

[26]  R. Tagiuri,et al.  Person perception and interpersonal behavior , 1959 .

[27]  H. Harlow.  The Nature of Love , 1958 .

[28]  H. Kelley.  The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons. , 1950, Journal of personality.

[29]  S. Asch.  Forming impressions of personality. , 1946, Journal of abnormal psychology.