Social Exclusion Literally Feels Cold, Study
Christopher Philip
Our metaphors help us describe out internal workings and the research bears this out.
Chen-Bo Zhong and Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, University of Toronto, showed, in their paper, that when people are socially excluded, that they actually feel colder.
An “icy stare” from a “cold hearted b%$@” likely stem from the actual embodiment, that is, how our bodies really perceive and interpret our feelings.
Metaphors quite literally “surround us,” and may be a creation produced from the method by which our world is encoded in our cognition.
Over the course of two studies, the researchers showed that participants, when socially rejected, felt physically colder than those who did not experience social exclusion.
In the first experiment, subjects who were asked to report a time when they felt excluded socially reported the room as colder than those who recalled a time when they were socially included.
In the second experiment social interaction was created through an online virtual interaction. Those who were excluded reported a greater desire for a warm food and drink than those who were included.
“These findings,” say the researchers in their paper “are consistent with the embodied view of cognition and support the notion that social perception involves physical and perceptual content.”
Deprivation of social contact is stressful, but it turns out that it not only created anxiety, but it also creates physical pain.
It turns out that we have a deep desire to be included, to be given a “warm embrace” rather than “left out in the cold.”
“Th[e] linguistic coupling between social isolation and coldness may reflect people’s predisposition to use concepts that are based on bodily experience (e.g., cold) to describe complex concepts such as social rejection,” say the researchers.
Early research certainly bears this out. For example, people report that traits such as generous, sociable, popular and humane are often associated with the impression of social “warmth.”
The science says that our early concepts with temperature form our bodily experiences which then help our mind handle the concepts. For example, an “icy stare” does not reflect on the temperature of the actual gaze pattern, but we understand that in most conditions, iciness is not as comforting as warmth. So we then attribute icy with bad and an antisocial stare as, therefore, being cold rather than warm.
Indeed, this concept is found in many other areas of our thought. For example, the idea of cleanliness is engrained in all of us very early on. It is a positive condition. We wash our hands and bodies readily after being exposed to dirt and toxins. This concepts has been shown through research to form the basis for a cleanliness metaphor were people will seek sanitary wipes to “wash away their sins” when they recall moral transgressions.
Past misdeeds, when recalled, induce people to seek out cleanliness! Our cognition wires us to connect our physical world with more abstract concepts – it’s how we deal with them.
In another example, one study created the conditions of walking more slowly after activating the elderly stereotype. These ideas have been repeated many times.
Drawing Conclusions
That social exclusion literally makes people feel colder and that they seek warmth from food and drink says that we may find those in need of social inclusion by the types of drink and food they consume. Someone who needs a warm cup of coffee in the morning, might also seek a warm social embrace.
In other words chicken soup can really be “for the soul” and offering a warm drink really can foster a more intimate interaction. Therefore, having warm coffee on hand can be a great way to begin a business interaction including collaboration or even tense negotiation.
We also know that having positive and strong social relationships make people feel more warmly and that they embody social exclusion as physical coldness.
When someone describes another as “frigid” or “cool”, we should understand the physical properties associated with the metaphor.
Resources
Zhong, Chen-Bo and Geoffrey J. Leonardelli. Cold and Lonely Does Social Exclusion Literally Feel Cold? Association for Psychological Science. 2008. 19(9): 838-842.
Bargh, J.A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230-244.
Zhong, C.-B., & Liljenquist, K. (2006). Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing. Science, 313, 1451-1452.
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