“Cold Hands, Warm Heart” is a myth that scientists have busted.
According to the U.K. Telegraph, “The old adage that cold hands often conceal a warm heart has been dispelled by scientists, after they found how physically warm you are has a direct correlation to how nice you are to people.”
Researchers at Yale University conducted several experiments on warmth and its effect with solid findings. Professor John Bargh, a psychologist at Yale, said, “Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer – more trusting – as well.”
Not only that, but people with warm hands are generous. “… Researchers had people, who thought they were evaluating a product, hold either a warm or cold object – hot pads or cold pads as used in muscle therapy- and then given a choice of reward for participating in the study: either a gift for a friend, or a reward for themselves.,” The Telegraph reports.
In fact, researchers discovered that when people held warm cups of coffee, they were assumed to be generous and charitable. The opposite is true of people holding iced coffee. Yet more vindication for my preference for steaming cups of coffee.