Sweltering heat makes people moody and unhelpful

When it is uncomfortably hot, people tend to become moody and also less helpful or 'pro-social,' new research has found. The study, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, could help explain how and through what mechanisms ambient temperature influences individual helping.

"The point of our study is that ambient temperature affects individual states that shape emotional and behavioural reactions, so people help less in an uncomfortable environment," said Liuba Belkin, Associate Professor of Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, US.

Data provided by a large Russian retail chain for part one of the study allowed the authors to analyse differences in individual behaviour under hot versus normal temperature conditions.

Clerks working in an uncomfortably hot environment, according to the data, were 50 per cent less likely to engage in pro-social behaviour including volunteering to help customers, listening actively and making suggestions.

As a result of a randomised online experiment, the researchers found that only 34 per cent of participants, who were asked to recall a time when they were uncomfortably hot, were willing to help in a task afterwards, compared to 76 per cent in a control group. This revealed that mere recollection of being uncomfortably hot reduced a person's likelihood to be helpful.