Ohmygosh, I am not feeling well. I feel like a used litterbox. Ew. I just grossed myself out there. Anyhoo, I’ve had something I wanted to share with you, but unfortunately I’ve not been up to posting it in the detail you deserve. Instead of holding onto it even longer, I’m going to be brief and let you know of this neat study.
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The other day I heard of a study reported in the journal Science about holding warm or cold coffee. The researchers found that holding warm coffee led people to judge others to be more generous and caring. If they held iced coffee they’d think of them less nicely.
They also found that if asked to hold a warm pack, they’d be more generous and give something to someone. If they held a cold pack, they’d be more likely to keep something for themselves.
Which means, physical warmth leads us to see others as warmer, and leads us to feel more generous, while physical cold gives colder results.
The same researchers had previously shown that physical distance between people influences their judgments about that person.
How cool is that!? You can listen to the report of the news item and read more details at the Naked Scientists Science News.
That’s pretty remarkable! Although as an iced coffee drinker, I try and keep my judgement calls based on others treatment of me, so maybe if we’re all holding coffee of some kind, the results can skew in a whole variety of ways!
By the way, that picture of the emo swiffer is awesome.
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Neece Reply:
December 18th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Hey Steve, yeah I think it’s really cool. Science Rocks!
Thanks, I love the lolcats and loldogs, as you can probably tell.
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