TY - JOUR

T1 - The effects of temperature on prosocial and antisocial behaviour

T2 - A review and meta‐analysis

AU - Lynott, Dermot

AU - Corker, Katherine

AU - Connell, Louise

AU - O'Brien, Kerry

PY - 2023/2/16

Y1 - 2023/2/16

N2 - Research from the social sciences suggests an association between higher temperatures and increases in antisocial behaviours, including aggressive, violent, or sabotaging behaviours, and represents a heat‐facilitates‐aggression perspective. More recently, studies have shown that higher temperature experiences may also be linked to increases in prosocial behaviours, such as altruistic, sharing, or cooperative behaviours, representing a warmth‐primes‐prosociality view. However, across both literatures, there have been inconsistent findings and failures to replicate key theoretical predictions, leaving the status of temperature‐behaviour links unclear. Here we review the literature and conduct meta‐analyses of available empirical studies that have either prosocial (e.g., monetary reward, gift giving, helping behaviour) or antisocial (self‐rewarding, retaliation, sabotaging behaviour) behavioural outcome variables, with temperature as an independent variable. In an omnibus multivariate analysis (total N = 4577) with 80 effect sizes, we found that there was no reliable effect of temperature on the behavioural outcome measured. Further, we find little support for either the warmth‐primes‐prosociality view or the heat‐facilitates‐aggression view. There were no reliable effects if we consider separately the type of behavioural outcome (prosocial or antisocial), different types of temperature experience (haptic or ambient), or potential interactions with the experimental social context (positive, neutral, or negative). We discuss how these findings affect the status of existing theoretical perspectives and provide specific suggestions advancing research in this area.

AB - Research from the social sciences suggests an association between higher temperatures and increases in antisocial behaviours, including aggressive, violent, or sabotaging behaviours, and represents a heat‐facilitates‐aggression perspective. More recently, studies have shown that higher temperature experiences may also be linked to increases in prosocial behaviours, such as altruistic, sharing, or cooperative behaviours, representing a warmth‐primes‐prosociality view. However, across both literatures, there have been inconsistent findings and failures to replicate key theoretical predictions, leaving the status of temperature‐behaviour links unclear. Here we review the literature and conduct meta‐analyses of available empirical studies that have either prosocial (e.g., monetary reward, gift giving, helping behaviour) or antisocial (self‐rewarding, retaliation, sabotaging behaviour) behavioural outcome variables, with temperature as an independent variable. In an omnibus multivariate analysis (total N = 4577) with 80 effect sizes, we found that there was no reliable effect of temperature on the behavioural outcome measured. Further, we find little support for either the warmth‐primes‐prosociality view or the heat‐facilitates‐aggression view. There were no reliable effects if we consider separately the type of behavioural outcome (prosocial or antisocial), different types of temperature experience (haptic or ambient), or potential interactions with the experimental social context (positive, neutral, or negative). We discuss how these findings affect the status of existing theoretical perspectives and provide specific suggestions advancing research in this area.

KW - ARTICLE

KW - ARTICLES

KW - aggression

KW - antisocial

KW - behaviour

KW - priming

KW - prosocial

KW - temperature

U2 - 10.1111/bjso.12626

DO - 10.1111/bjso.12626

M3 - Journal article

JO - British Journal of Social Psychology

JF - British Journal of Social Psychology

SN - 0144-6665

ER -