In addition to viewing others as more trustworthy and caring, individuals who held a warm object also were more generous with others.
The results support the idea that physical warmth is linked with psychological warmth, and also suggest the link could be deeply rooted in our psyche perhaps from when we were infants being held by our warm mothers.
For instance, we might consider a warm person as someone who is helpful, friendly and trustworthy.
To figure out this warm connection, the researchers had a study scientist ask each of 41 undergraduate students, 27 of whom were female, to hold either a cup of hot coffee or iced coffee while in an elevator en route to another floor in a building. While holding the coffee, participants gave their names and other basic information.
The subjects were then given a packet of information about an individual and asked to rate that individual's personality traits, including those related to the warm-cold personality factors, such as generous/ungenerous, happy/unhappy, good-natured/irritable, sociable/anti-social and caring/selfish.
Participants assessed the stranger as significantly "warmer" if they had previously held the warm coffee rather than the iced version. On personality features unrelated to warmth, the researchers found no difference in responses between the warm-cup and cold-cup holders.
The researchers also tested the link between physical warmth and warm behaviors. Participants who held heated or frozen therapeutic packs supposedly as part of a product evaluation study were told they could receive a gift certificate for a friend or a gift for themselves. Individuals who held the hot pack were more likely to ask for the gift certificate. The cold-pack carriers tended to keep the gift.
It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others. It affects our own behavior as well. Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer — more generous and trusting — as well.
This is why we should start our day by warming our hands while we hold a cup of morning coffee ot tea.
