Too hot to help! Exploring the impact of ambient temperature on helping

Seeing is more than believing: Personal experience increases climate action

Although global warming is a serious problem that influences numerous people worldwide, individuals are still reluctant to change their behaviours. The present research investigates how local hot temperatures affect climate action in non-Western groups. In Study 1, an analysis of temperature and information acquisition by Shanghai residents in 122 days found that heat increased attention and awareness of climate change. In Study 2 and Study 3, participants who were primed with heat-related perceptions were more likely to take climate action in private and public spheres. In Study 4, we further identified that people who experienced hot temperature events increased their beliefs and efficacy about climate change, which in turn motivated them to take more climate action. Importantly, the mediating effects were significant both in the manipulation of heat and real-world settings. Consistent with our theoretical perspective, seeing is more than believing because personal experience increases climate action by fostering climate change beliefs and efficacy.

Homo temporus: Seasonal Cycles as a Fundamental Source of Variation in Human Psychology

Many animal species exhibit seasonal changes in their physiology and behavior. Yet despite ample evidence that humans are also responsive to seasons, the impact of seasonal changes on human psychology is underappreciated relative to other sources of variation (e.g., personality, culture, development). This is unfortunate because seasonal variation has potentially profound conceptual, empirical, methodological, and practical implications. Here, we encourage a more systematic and comprehensive collective effort to document and understand the many ways in which seasons influence human psychology. We provide an illustrative summary of empirical evidence showing that seasons impact a wide range of affective, cognitive, and behavioral phenomena. We then articulate a conceptual framework that outlines a set of causal mechanisms through which seasons can influence human psychology-mechanisms that reflect seasonal changes not only in meteorological variables but also in ecological and sociocultural variables. This framework may be useful for integrating many different seasonal effects that have already been empirically documented and for generating new hypotheses about additional seasonal effects that have not yet received empirical attention. The article closes with a section that provides practical suggestions to facilitate greater appreciation for, and systematic study of, seasons as a fundamental source of variation in human psychology.

Too hot to help or too cold to care? On the links between ambient temperature, volunteerism, and civic engagement

We investigated the relationship between ambient temperature and prosocial behaviour in real-life settings. It was guided by two mechanisms of opposite predictions, namely (1) higher temperatures decrease prosociality by harming well-being, and (2) higher temperatures increase prosociality by promoting the embodied cognition of social warmth. In Study 1, U.S. state-level time-series data (2002-2015) supported the first mechanism, with higher temperatures predicting lower volunteer rates through lower well-being. Study 2 furthered the investigation by probing the relationship between neighbourhood temperature and civic engagement of 2268 U.S. citizens. The data partially supported the well-being mechanism and reported findings contradictory to the social embodiment mechanism. Higher temperatures predicted lower interpersonal trust and subsequently lower civic engagement. The unexpected finding hinted at a cognitive effect of heat and a compensatory mechanism in social thermoregulation. We discussed the findings regarding their methodological strengths and weaknesses, with cautions made on ecological fallacies and alternative models.

Intensive Urbanization, Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants: Effects on the Temperature of a City in a Basin Geography

A qualitative study of thermal transfers is carried out from a record of measurements (time series) of meteorological variables (temperature, relative humidity and magnitude of wind speeds) and pollutants (PM₁₀, PM_2.5 and CO) in six localities located at different heights in the geographic basin of Santiago de Chile. The measurements were made in two periods, 2010-2013 and 2017-2020 (a total of 2,049,336 data), the last period coinciding with a process of intense urbanization, especially high-rise construction. The measurements, in the form of hourly time series, are analyzed on the one hand according to the theory of thermal conduction discretizing the differential equation of the temporal variation in the temperature and, on the other hand, through the theory of chaos that provides the entropies (S). Both procedures demonstrate, comparatively, that the last period of intense urbanization presents an increase in thermal transfers and temperature, which affects urban meteorology and makes it more complex. As shown by the chaotic analysis, there is a faster loss of information for the period 2017-2020. The consequences of the increase in temperature on human health and learning processes are studied.

The effects of temperature on prosocial and antisocial behaviour: A review and meta-analysis

Research from the social sciences suggests an association between higher temperatures and increases in antisocial behaviours, including aggressive, violent, or sabotaging behaviours, and represents a heat-facilitates-aggression perspective. More recently, studies have shown that higher temperature experiences may also be linked to increases in prosocial behaviours, such as altruistic, sharing, or cooperative behaviours, representing a warmth-primes-prosociality view. However, across both literatures, there have been inconsistent findings and failures to replicate key theoretical predictions, leaving the status of temperature-behaviour links unclear. Here we review the literature and conduct meta-analyses of available empirical studies that have either prosocial (e.g., monetary reward, gift giving, helping behaviour) or antisocial (self-rewarding, retaliation, sabotaging behaviour) behavioural outcome variables, with temperature as an independent variable. In an omnibus multivariate analysis (total N = 4577) with 80 effect sizes, we found that there was no reliable effect of temperature on the behavioural outcome measured. Further, we find little support for either the warmth-primes-prosociality view or the heat-facilitates-aggression view. There were no reliable effects if we consider separately the type of behavioural outcome (prosocial or antisocial), different types of temperature experience (haptic or ambient), or potential interactions with the experimental social context (positive, neutral, or negative). We discuss how these findings affect the status of existing theoretical perspectives and provide specific suggestions advancing research in this area.

Introduction to eco-efficient materials for reducing cooling needs in buildings and construction

This introductory chapter starts by reviewing worrying warming patterns that have been recently worsened by positive-feedback vicious cycles. These patterns suggest that the rate of global warming will be faster than projected in the recent IPCC special report. The deep adaptation agenda is discussed. Some studies concerning the social impacts of heat waves, considered to be the most important and dangerous hazards related to the current climate emergency, combined with urban heat islands, are reviewed. An expanded outline of the book is also included.

The Invisible Leash: The Impact of Organizational Expectations for Email Monitoring After-Hours on Employee Resources, Well-Being, and Turnover Intentions

Emerging research demonstrates detrimental effects of work-related email use after-hours on employee emotions and well-being. This article extends existing literature by examining organizational expectations for email monitoring (OEEM) during nonwork hours as an antecedent of employee low work detachment, emotional exhaustion, diminished work–life balance, and increased turnover intentions. Adapting the conservation of resources perspective, we theorize that OEEM leads to negative individual and organizational outcomes via two different paths: lack of work detachment, and emotional depletion. The findings of a study with time-separated data collected from a large sample of 570 working adults support our predictions that OEEM decreases employee work–life balance through both low work detachment and emotional exhaustion, while the indirect effect of OEEM on employee turnover intentions is mediated by employee emotional exhaustion, and by work detachment through emotional exhaustion. We also find that decrease in work–life balance is negatively correlated with employee intentions to leave the company, but that this direct effect is not significant in the full model. Finally, we demonstrate that the time employees spend on work-related emails after-hours is not the main driver of negative outcomes. Taken together, our findings highlight deleterious implications of OEEM on employee resources and subsequent organization-related outcomes.