Effects of ambient and haptic temperature experience on prosocial choices (US/UK 2014) (ICPSR 36761)

Version Date: Mar 22, 2017

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Principal Investigator(s):
Dermot Lynott, Lancaster University; Katherine Corker, Grand Valley State University; Louise Connell, Lancaster University; Kerry O'Brien, Monash University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36761.v1

Version V1

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Summary

Research in social embodied cognition has found numerous positive associations between higher temperatures and prosocial behavior, with "warmer is better" effects demonstrating greater altruism, social proximity, and affective attributions. However, recent failures to replicate experimental findings in this area have called some effects into question. By contrast, epidemiological research has frequently observed that higher ambient temperatures are correlated with increases in societal volatility and antisocial behaviors, with "warmer is worse" effects demonstrated by increases in warfare, city-center rioting, and sporting aggression. Using a sample size (N = 611) larger than many previous studies in the social priming domain, we examined whether higher ambient temperature and/or higher prop temperature (i.e., holding a hot/cold therapeutic pack) lead to more prosocial behavior. Results showed that warmer ambient temperatures were weakly associated with more prosocial than selfish choices. However, calculation of Bayes Factors suggests that the evidence is better characterized as inconclusive. As previously published analyses of the same data set used in this study show (Lynott et al., 2014), prop temperature did not lead to increased prosocial responding, which fails to support predictions from particular accounts of social embodiment. We discuss possible reasons for the inconclusive findings and for the broad range of effect sizes observed more generally in the literature.

Citation

Lynott, Dermot, Corker, Katherine, Connell, Louise, and O’Brien, Kerry. Effects of ambient and haptic temperature experience on prosocial choices (US/UK 2014). Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-03-22. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36761.v1

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Funding

Center for Open Science

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

City

Restrictions

This dataset is part of ICPSR's Archives of Scientific Psychology journal database. Users should contact the Editorial Office at the American Psychological Association for information on requesting data access.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Sample

Convenience sampling. See Lynott, D. Corker, K. S. Connell, L. & O'Brien, K. S. (in press). The Effect of Haptic and Ambient Temperature Experience on Prosocial Behavior. Accepted for publication in Archives of Scientific Psychology.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

100% response rate.

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Original Release Date

2017-03-22

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Lynott, Dermot, Katherine Corker, Louise Connell, and Kerry O'Brien. Effects of ambient and haptic temperature experience on prosocial choices (US/UK 2014). ICPSR36761-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-03-22. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36761.v1
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Notes

  • This dataset is part of ICPSR's Archives of Scientific Psychology journal database. Users should contact the Editorial Office at the American Psychological Association for information on requesting data access.

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

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Archives of Scientific Psychology

This dataset is made available in connection to an article in Archives of Scientific Psychology, the first open-access, open-methods journal of the American Psychological Association (APA). Archiving and dissemination of this research is part of APA's commitment to collaborative data sharing.