http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7688315.stm

Hot drinks promote warm feelings

Click to read all. The best bits:

Quote :

"In one test 41 volunteers were tricked into holding a drink while they were being taken from the lobby to the laboratory. They were then asked to read about a fictional character and rate how cold or warm they found them on a scale of one to seven. Those who had held the hot drink were significantly more likely to rate the character as a warm person. But the warmth of the drink had no impact on how the participants judged other personality traits. "

Quote :

"Selfishness In a second study, 53 people were asked to hold heated or frozen therapeutic pads believing they were evaluating a medical product. Once they had completed a questionnaire about the pads they were offered a choice of a drink for themselves or a voucher they could give to a friend. Those primed with coldness were more likely to choose a gift for themselves, while those primed with warmth were more likely to choose the gift for a friend. "

I am very surprised by the results of the 2nd study.

I guess this could be easily used to one's advantage to win friends, defuse tension, settle arguments, earn benefits/privileges (at work, home, school) etc. Nice.

10/24/2008 7:41:48 PM

so a cold beer isnt best to make you friendly again

but a warm shot of tequila is?


haha more like coffee or hot chocolate it sounds like

10/24/2008 7:47:10 PM

Do judges have a drink in court?

If so, could you like bribe the court employees to bring the judge a hot chocolate or tea when s/he is sentencing?

10/24/2008 8:00:02 PM

I'm so glad someone's tax dollars found this out.

10/24/2008 8:07:24 PM

im not sure what exactly this proves

10/24/2008 8:43:15 PM

maybe i'm just a douchebag, but i can't imagine a situation where someone asked if i wanted a drink or a voucher for a drink that i could give to a friend and i took the voucher.

[Edited on October 24, 2008 at 8:51 PM. Reason : unless it's a voucher for something way cooler (no pun intended) than a drink. hmm]

10/24/2008 8:51:09 PM

Hmm, so I wonder if that means if you have a first date at a coffee shop you are more likely to be receptive to the other person.

10/24/2008 11:09:19 PM

I rarely drink warm drinks. Maybe this means I'm a cold-hearted person

10/26/2008 2:33:26 AM

I wonder if this explains why Europeans were so aggressive... maybe it was all that cold weather.

10/26/2008 2:36:13 AM

^ haha...

I am sure colors and smells also have the same effect on humans. In fact, studies have shown that in the past.

As much as we like to say or think that we can be or are impartial when making decisions small and large, we are affected by environmental factors like temperature, color, and smell without us even knowing. And that's why we continue to claim we are impartial.

I love studies like that.

10/26/2008 6:33:51 AM

i call shenanigans on this whole thing. obviously the researchers have never been in a corporate office where vast amounts of coffee are consumed every day and people are still assholes.

10/26/2008 10:34:43 AM

You are ignoring the inherently different levels of niceness in people. People who become managers tend to be aggressive macho people who are going to be less nice to begin with.

Just imagine how much more of an asshole these people would be if they didn't have hot drinks throughout the day.

10/26/2008 10:38:58 AM

Quote :

"As much as we like to say or think that we can be or are impartial when making decisions small and large, we are affected by environmental factors like temperature, color, and smell without us even knowing. And that's why we continue to claim we are impartial."

i read something about that a long time ago. About what colors not to paint certain rooms because they bring on different moods and feelings etc.

10/26/2008 1:55:11 PM

so.... global warming = world peace? better check if this research is funded by Exxon-Mobil

10/26/2008 2:23:20 PM

Quote :

"About what colors not to paint certain rooms because they bring on different moods and feelings etc."

Yeah, red makes people agressive and blue calms people. I remember watching a program on TV like 20 years ago where they painted some cells blue and some red in a jail in the US. After a week or so, they compared the behaviour of the inmates. There was a HUGE difference. The red ones were more physically agressive than their base line measurements and getting into fights all the time. The blue ones had calmed down a lot from their base line, and stopped getting into fights.

I wonder what effect other colors would have, like green, yellow, orange, purple, black, and white.

My predictions:

Green: calming, but not as much as blue
Yellow/orange: make people happy
Purple: don't know
Black: make people depressed
White: Clear-headed

It would be amazing to do a study where they take a large gated residential community and paint bedrooms different colors, like 20-30 of each color, even different colors within the same family/house.

And then see measure their behaviour every week for like a year.

Wouldn't it be awesome/disastrous if they find that people in rooms of color X are 5 times more likely to try to kill themselves! Or that people in rooms of color Y are 5 times happier than the others.

This could have huge implications!


[Edited on October 26, 2008 at 4:01 PM. Reason : ]

10/26/2008 3:56:23 PM

facepalm.

[Edited on October 27, 2008 at 8:50 AM. Reason : .]

10/27/2008 8:49:37 AM

Quote :

"Or that people in rooms of color Y are 5 times happier than the others. "

how do you quantitatively measure happy?

10/27/2008 10:22:29 AM

I thought the fact that we get boners proved this.

10/27/2008 6:12:15 PM