One lump or two? How a hot cup of tea in the hand makes us friendlier towards strangers



Fancy a cuppa? Handing someone a hot cup of coffee or tea can trigger positive associations in the brain meaning that you're more likely to trust that person

If you want to make a good first impression on someone, give them a steaming cup of tea or hot chocolate.

Scientists have found that we feel more positively towards a stranger if we have a warming drink in our hand.

The extraordinary discovery could help explain why so many people offer a hot drink when a visitor comes to their house.

Researchers are unsure why physical warmth changes the way we view other people's personalities.



But they suspect that we are programmed to seek out warmth - and that a hot drink triggers a host of positive associations in the brain.

Dr John Bargh, a professor of psychology who led the study at Yale University, said: 'It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others, it affects our own behaviour as well.

'Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer - more generous and trusting - as well.'

In the study, 41 volunteers were briefly tricked into holding either a warm cup of coffee or iced coffee as they went up in a lift to the laboratory, one by one, for the experiment.

Once in the laboratory, they were handed a pack of information about a stranger and asked to assess his personality.



Although every student was given the same description, their opinions varied enormously depending on whether they had been given a hot or a cold drink.

'People who had briefly held the hot coffee cup perceived the target person as being significantly warmer than did those who had briefly held the cup of iced coffee,' the authors of the study report today in the journal Science.

However, the warmth of a drink made no difference to their descriptions of other personality traits.



That suggests a hot drink makes other people seem warmer - but not more intelligent, successful or attractive.

In a second study, 53 volunteers were asked to hold heated or frozen therapeutic pads under the guise of a medical product evaluation.

After filling in a questionnaire about the pads, they were offered the choice of either a drink for themselves, or a voucher they could give to a friend.



People who had held the hot pack were more likely to ask for the gift voucher, while those who held the frozen pack tended to keep the gift.

The researchers believe physical warmth may unconsciously 'prime' the brain into feeling more positive.



Other studies have suggested that the same region of the brain is involved in processing information about physical warmth and the warmth of people's personalities.

Past surveys have shown that people feel colder when they are miserable and isolated - and believe the temperature is higher when they have positive, happy thoughts.