Have a Cup of Coffee While Reading This

According to a research by two Yale psychologists, John A. Bargh and Lawrence E. Williams, encountering warmth or cold lights up the insula — a walnut-sized section of the brain — and the insula is the same part of the brain engaged when we evaluate who we can trust in economic transactions. The physical sensation of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a chilly drink in hand serves as a brake on rash decisions. Barth argues that,

One person's perceptions of another's "warmth" is a powerful determining factor in social relationships. Judging someone to be either "warm" or "cold" is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a "cold" person may be more competent. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experience, when infants' conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness.

The practical advice Bargh takes away from the study is that important decisions are best taken with a cold drink in hand, because that part of the brain that triggers caution in economic and trust decisions is stimulated by cold sensation. Conversely, if you are planning on introducing your fiancee to mom and dad, pass on the icy martinis in that air-conditioned, glass and steel restaurant; do it over a mug of hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire.

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