Friendship Warms the Heart, Literally 2°C More
pine Webmaster of Pineapple
2010/08/17 00:47
508 topics published
Update Date: 2010/08/16 04:11 [International News Center/Comprehensive Report]
From friends, some learn humor, others gain wisdom, and now research shows that friends can also have an effect similar to a warm blanket.
A Dutch study reveals that standing close to an intimate friend feels as warm as being wrapped in a cozy blanket. When standing next to a friend, you perceive the temperature to be 2 degrees Celsius warmer than when the friend is 60 centimeters away. However, standing next to someone you don’t get along with can make you feel a chill. This finding might explain why we use "cold" to describe people we dislike but "warm" to describe happy relationships.
As for why this reaction occurs, one theory suggests that humans, who are born in close contact with their mothers, have evolved to experience a rise in body temperature when near loved ones.
The lead researcher from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam noted that a previous experiment found that when participants were placed in a warmer room, their sense of unfamiliarity with the interviewer decreased. This indicates that our perception of relationships can be influenced by very basic factors.
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