Ambient Temperature, Social Perception and Social Behavior

The literature suggests that human perception and behavior vary with physical temperature. Weprovide an experimental test of how different ambient temperature conditions impact socialbehavior and social perception: Subjects went through a series of tasks measuring various aspectsof social behavior and perception under three temperature conditions (cold vs. optimal vs. warm).Despite well-established findings on temperature effects, our data suggest that physicaltemperature has no relevant influence on social behavior and social perception. We corroborateour finding of a null effect by the use of equivalence testing and provide a discussion in the light ofrecent failed replication attempts in this field of research