Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Bill Proxmire Special



It turns out that if you want to capture a denialist's heart give them a warm cup o tea. We know this because Williams and Bargh have published "Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth" in Science.

We hypothesized that experiences of physical warmth (or coldness) would increase feelings of interpersonal warmth (or coldness), without the person's awareness of this influence. In study 1, participants who briefly held a cup of hot (versus iced) coffee judged a target person as having a "warmer" personality (generous, caring); in study 2, participants holding a hot (versus cold) therapeutic pad were more likely to choose a gift for a friend instead of for themselves.
Eli suggests some 15 year old Ledaig (guess who the denialist is) to confuse em. Beinn A' Cheo is much too good to waste.