Loneliness Makes You Cold

"When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside world which is like the cold space between the planets (slightly above 0 degress Kelvin? -ed). It is an air in which men perish utterly." - Hilaire Belloc

A (relatively) new article in Psychological Science reports that when thinking about a situation where you were socially excluded, it makes you estimate the room temperature as colder.
A second study excluded or included participants in a computer ball-tossing game. When excluded, participants preferred hot drinks and food over cold, suggesting a need to "warm up".

Reversely the authors speculate that cooler temperatures could make you feel sadder, lonelier and socially excluded (a valid assumption but pure speculation nonetheless as this bidirectionality was not explored).

An interesting side note was the surprisingly large variaton in estimated room temperature (from 12C to 40C). Another indication that context and other subjective factors steer perception of reality more than factual conditions (bringing us to the question of the existence of factual conditions itself).

Additionally, this reasearch could potentionally shed light on seasonal disorder as partly caused by variations in temperature. Makes me wonder if dressing warmly could help shield you from depression.





Useful Materials:
-Ice cream
-Snow
-Cold pizza
-Siberia
-Documentaries on North Pole
-Winter rain
-Ice baths
-Dog sled expeditions

Topic Tip:
Turning down the heat in your home will result in stronger feelings of sadness, loneliness and social exclusion. We'd suggest you open all windows, take a shower but don't dry off. Subsequently pull out some Ben and Jerry's (preferably their depressingly fitting "Socialice") and start reading "The Terror"*.

* An all time favorite historic fiction on two ships stuck in the ice somewhere in north-east Canada while supplies run out. While the crew fights for survival The Cold starts creeping into every aspect of their lives. I constantly kept upping the thermostat while reading.

Lnk: Article by Zhong & Leonardelli in Psych. Science
Lnk: Book "The Terror"
Lnk: Movie: "The Frozen Dead"
Lnk: Depressed Hamsters Shed Light on Seasonal Disorder

-Matthijs