Recent research suggests that thermal (cold vs. warm) experience influences people’s perception and construal of the social world. Extending this line of research, the present investigation examined whether cold thermal temperature would influence people’s psychological feelings of belonging. We found that drinking cold water threatened feelings of belonging (Study 1). An additional study replicated this effect and further showed that it was moderated by perceived family support, such that the effect of cold water on the belonging was only found among participants with low family support (Study 2). These findings not only strengthen the interconnection between social and physical experiences, but they also demonstrate the interactive effect of these two types of experiences on psychological feelings. Implications are discussed.
AikenL. S.WestS. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
2.
AndersonC. A.AndersonK. B.DeuserW. E. (1996). Examining an affective aggression framework: Weapon and temperature effects on aggressive thoughts, affect, and attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 366–376.
3.
AschS. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258–290.
4.
AydinN.KruegerJ.FischerJ.HahnD.KastenmullerA.FreyD.FischerP. (2012). “Man’s best friend:” How the presence of a dog reduces mental distress after social exclusion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 446–449.
5.
BarghJ. A.ShalevI. (2012). The substitutability of physical and social warmth in daily life. Emotion, 12, 154–162.
6.
BarsalouL. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645.
7.
BaumeisterR. F.LearyM. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.
8.
BowlbyJ. (1969). Attachment and loss. London, England: Hogarth Press.
9.
BrownJ. L.SheffieldD.LearyM. R.RobinsonM. E. (2003). Social support and experimental pain. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 276–283.
10.
ChenZ.PoonK. T.DeWallC. N. (in press). When do socially accepted people feel ostracized? Physical pain triggers social pain. Social Influence.
11.
DonnellanM. B.LucasR. E.CesarioJ. (in press). On the association between loneliness and bathing habits: Nine replications of bargh and shalev (2012) study 1. Emotion.
12.
FayJ. K.ManerJ. K. (2012). Warm, spatial proximity, and social attachment: The embodied perception of a social metaphor. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1369–1372.
13.
FiskeS. T.CuddyA. J. C.GlickP. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth and competence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 77–83.
14.
GoodenowC.ReisineS. T.GradyK. E. (1990). Quality of social support and associated social and psychological functioning in women with rheumatoid arthritis. Health Psychology, 9, 266–284.
15.
HarlowH. (1958). The nature of love. American Psychologist, 13, 673–685.
16.
IJzermanH.GallucciM.PouwW. T. J. L.WeiβgerberS. C.Van DoesumN. J.WilliamsK. D. (2012). Cold-blooded loneliness: Social exclusion leads to lower skin temperatures. Acta Psychologica, 140, 283–288.
17.
IJzermanH.KarremansJ. C.ThomsenL.SchubertT. W. (2013). Caring for sharing: How attachment styles modulate communal cues of physical warmth. Social Psychology, 44, 160–166.
18.
IJzermanH.SeminG. R. (2009). The thermometer of social relations: Mapping social proximity on temperature. Psychological Science, 20, 1214–1220.
19.
IJzermanH.SeminG. R. (2010). Temperature perceptions as a ground for social proximity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 867–873.
20.
InagakiT. K.EisenbergerN. I. (2013). Shared neural mechanisms underlying social warmth and physical warmth. Psychological Science, 24, 2272–2280.
21.
KangY.WilliamsL. E.ClarkM. S.GrayJ. R.BarghJ. A. (2011). Physical temperature effects on trust behavior: The role of insula. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6, 507–515.
22.
LakoffG.JohnsonM. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
23.
LandauM. J.MeierB. P.KeeferL. A. (2010). A metaphor-enriched social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 1045–1067.
24.
LindorffM. (2000). Is it better to perceive than receive? Social support, stress and strain for managers. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 5, 271–286.
25.
MasterS. L.EisenbergerN. I.TaylorS. E.NaliboffB. D.ShirinyanD.LiebermanM. D. (2009). A picture’s worth: Partner photographs reduce experimentally induced pain. Psychological Science, 20, 1316–1318.
26.
MellorD.StokesM.FirthL.HayashiY.CumminsR. (2008). Need for belonging, relationship satisfaction, loneliness, and life satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 213–218.
27.
Orobio de CastroB.VeermanJ. W.KoopsW.BoschJ. D.MonshouwerH. J. (2002). Hostile attribution of intent and aggressive behavior: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 73, 916–934.
28.
PoonK. T.ChenZ.DeWallC. N. (2013). Feeling entitled to more: Ostracism increases dishonest behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 1227–1239.
29.
RivaP.WirthJ. H.WilliamsK. D. (2011). The consequences of pain: The social and physical pain overlap on psychological responses. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 681–687.
30.
RussellD.CutronaC. E.RoseJ.YurkoK. (1984). Social and emotional loneliness: An examination of weiss’s typology of loneliness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 1313–1321.
31.
StoneA. A.MezzacappaE. S.DonatoneB. A.GonderM. (1999). Psychosocial stress and social support are associated with prostate-specific antigen levels in men: Results from a community screening program. Health Psychology, 18, 482–486.
32.
TaylorS. E. (2007). Social support. In FriedmanH. S.SilverR. C. (Eds.), Foundations of health psychology. (pp. 145–171). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
33.
TengF.ChenZ. (2012). Does social support reduce distress caused by ostracism? It depends on the level of one’s self-esteem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1192–1195.
34.
TroisiJ. D.GabrielS. (2011). Chicken soup really is good for the soul: “Comfort food” fulfills the need to belong. Psychological Science, 22, 747–753.
35.
TwengeJ. M.BaumeisterR. F.TiceD. M.StuckeT. S. (2001). If you can’t join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1058–1069.
36.
Turner-CobbJ. M.Gore-FeltonC.MaroufF.KoopmanC.KimP.IsraelskiD.SpiegelD. (2002). Coping, social support, and attachment style as psychosocial correlates of adjustment in men and women with HIV/AIDS. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 25, 337–353.
37.
van BeestI.WilliamsK. D. (2006). When inclusion costs and ostracism pays, ostracism still hurts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 918–928.
38.
VauxA. (1987). Appraisals of social support: Love, respect, and involvement. Journal of Community Psychology, 15, 493–502.
39.
WilliamsK. D. (2009). Ostracism: A temporal need-threat model. In ZannaM. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 41, pp. 279–314). New York, NY: Academic Press.
WilliamsL. E.BarghJ. A. (2008b). Keeping one’s distance: The influence of spatial distance cues on affect and evaluation. Psychological Science, 19, 302–308.
42.
WilliamsK. D.CheungC. K. T.ChoiW. (2000). Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the internet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 748–762.
43.
WilliamsL. E.HuangJ. Y.BarghJ. A. (2009). The scaffolded mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1257–1267.
44.
ZhongC.LeonardelliG. J. (2008). Cold and lonely: Does social exclusion literally feel cold?Psychological Science, 19, 838–842.
