Social Isolation Makes People Cold, Literally  

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer,

LiveScience.com 

The cold shoulder is more than just a metaphor. A new

study found that social isolation can actually make people

feel cold.

Researchers wanted to learn just how icy loneliness can

get. So two University of Toronto psychologists, Chen-Bo

Zhong and Geoffrey Leonardelli, asked some subjects to

remember a time when they felt socially excluded, such as

being rejected from a club, while others recalled memories

of being accepted into a group. Afterward, the

researchers asked all the participants to estimate the

temperature of the room, telling them this task was

unrelated to the previous activity and that the building's

maintenance staff simply wanted to know.

While estimates ranged from 54 degrees Fahrenheit to

104 degrees Fahrenheit, in general, those who had been

remembering emotionally chilly times also literally felt

chillier, even though the room's temperature remained

constant during the experiment. People who had recalled

feeling ostracized estimated the temperature to be about

71 degrees Fahrenheit, on average. Participants who

were remembering the warm, fuzzy feeling of social

inclusion felt the room to be a balmy 75 degrees

Fahrenheit, on average. The discrepancy is a statistically

significant difference, Zhong said.

"We found that the experience of social exclusion literally

feels cold," Zhong said. "This may be why people use

temperature-related metaphors to describe social

inclusion and exclusion."

Loneliness is chilly

In a second experiment, Zhong and Leonardelli had

participants play a computer-simulated ball-tossing game

in which some people were passed the ball more often

than others, so some volunteers felt included and others

felt excluded. Afterward, the participants had to rate the

appeal of various foods and beverages, such as hot

coffee, crackers, an ice-cold Coke, an apple and hot

soup.

The unpopular players were much more likely to hanker

for warm items such as soup and coffee than those who

had just felt socially accepted. The findings imply that

participants who had been feeling left out were also

literally feeling left out in the cold, and wanted the warm

foods to heat them up.

"It's striking that people preferred hot coffee and soup

more when socially excluded," Leonardelli said. "Our

research suggests that warm chicken soup may be a

literal coping mechanism for social isolation."

The study is detailed in the September issue of the journal 

Psychological Science.

Why the connection?

The researchers speculate that this link between

temperature and social inclusion might arise when people

are babies.

"For an infant, being closer to a caretaker brings warmth,"

Zhong said. "When you're a kid, being held by your

mother means warmth, and being distant means

coldness."

This connection continues throughout life, since when a

person is in a room with 10 other people, the ambient

temperature is warmer than when in a room alone.

"When we talk about metaphors, they're not just language;

they're literally the way we experience the world," Zhong

told LiveScience.

This finding fits well with a previous study of Zhong's, in

which he asked people to recall a time when they were

morally challenged and did something they feel guilty

about. Afterward, those people felt a greater need for

physical cleansing, such as washing their hands.

"Social experience and physical experience actually

overlap to a great extent," Zhong said. "Our social

perceptions are not always abstract, but include other

information such as bodily perception."

·           The Biggest Popular Myths 

·           10 Things You Didn't Know About You 

·           Loneliness Kills, Study Shows 

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