Last updated January 11, 2018 at 10:30 am
New research shows a link between locations with an average ambient temperature of 22 °C and a population that’s social, emotionally stable, and open to experience.
It turns out that when it’s not too hot, but not too cold, people tend to be in a pretty good mood.
We know that, in broad strokes, human personality types are linked to geographical regions. For instance, farming and fishing communities value socialisation, while herding communities value independence. And people tend to move to locations that suit their personality and interests, reinforcing the dominant type in the area.
This latest research proposes that temperature is fundamental to the development of our personalities, since we are constantly experiencing and reacting to it.
The authors write that, “as [a] warm-blooded species, humans have the existential need for thermal comfort. Clement [that is, mild] temperatures encourage individuals to explore the outside environment, where both social interactions and new experiences abound; by contrast, when the ambient temperature is either too hot or too cold, individuals are less likely to go outside”.
To explore this idea, the authors surveyed thousands of people who live in their family hometowns across China and the United States. They focused on the two personality “higher-order factors” that group together the hundreds of human personality traits.
The first factor is Alpha, which represents socialisation and stability (so things like agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability), and the second is Beta, which represents personal growth and plasticity (so things like extraversion and openness to experience).
The researchers found that people who lived in areas with an ambient temperature of 22 °C rated highly in both Alpha and Beta factors.
“Growing up in temperatures that are close to the psychophysiological comfort optimum encourages individuals to explore the outside environment, thereby influencing their personalities,” they write.
They also point out that global warming may play a role in our personalities in the future: ‘As climate change continues across the world, we may also observe concomitant changes in human personality.’
This research was published in Nature Human Behaviour.
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