MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library



    The effects of temperature on prosocial and antisocial behaviour: A review and meta-analysis


    Lynott, Dermot and Corker, Katherine S. and Connell, Louise and O’Brien, Kerry S. (2023) The effects of temperature on prosocial and antisocial behaviour: A review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0144-6665 (In Press)

    [img]
    Preview
    Download (1MB) | Preview
    Official URL: https://psyarxiv.com/qup53


    Share your research

    Twitter Facebook LinkedIn GooglePlus Email more...



    Add this article to your Mendeley library


    Abstract

    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 outcomes 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.

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: temperature; prosocial; antisocial; behaviour; priming; aggression;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
    Item ID: 16911
    Depositing User: Dermot Lynott
    Date Deposited: 02 Feb 2023 13:50
    Journal or Publication Title: British Journal of Social Psychology
    Publisher: Wiley
    Refereed: Yes
    URI:
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

    Repository Staff Only(login required)

    View Item Item control page

    Downloads

    Downloads per month over past year

    Origin of downloads