A hot cup of tea, coffee, or cocoa is calming and comforting--but how can
holding a warm mug affect our emotions? In Heartwarming, social psychologist
Hans Rocha IJzerman explores temperature through the long lens of evolution.
Besides breathing, regulating body temperature is one of the most fundamental
tasks for any animal. Like huddling penguins, we humans have long relied on one
another to maintain our temperatures; over millennia, this instinct for
thermoregulation has shaped our lives and culture.
Temperature contributed to our evolution--our upright walking, our loss of fur,
and our big brains--and now continues to affect our lives in unexpected ways,
and the link from a warm