Does Hotter Weather Make You More Angry?
The relationship between weather, body temperature, and anger.
It’s safe to say that if you’re in the UK at the moment you’re likely feeling a tad on the warm side. So much so that the next time you make a roast chicken for dinner you might be able to empathise with what it feels like to be the chicken in your oven (bad joke, I know). And if you are anything like me it’s possible that you might be somewhat quick to anger, which is something I’ve become conscious of in the context of being a parent. It seems that my threshold for toddler tomfoolery has shrunk significantly over the last week or so. But if you have been feeling a little techier, annoyed, frustrated, or more short-tempered than usual, do not worry!! You are not alone. There is research to suggest that warmer temperatures can have an influence on our emotions, specifically anger.
Typically our body temperature is meant to be between 37-38C; however, our body temperature rises when the external temperature rises. To lower the temperature of our inner core, our body will try and regulate it in four ways (vaporisation, radiation, convection, and conduction) which overall causes the blood to travel to the surface of our skin in an effort to get our core temperate down. As a consequence, we can feel more fatigued due to there being less blood in our brains. Also, hotter weather can make it more difficult to sleep, which can impact how tired we feel, further making us feel foggy and fatigued and contributing to feelings of irritability.
Additionally, as you can see in the body map image above when we feel certain emotions our bodies change temperature. It seems that happiness and love are the “hottest” emotional experiences we have, which might account for that warm, fuzzy feeling we may feel when in a state of happiness or feeling loved. However, less pleasant emotions also seem to be quite “hot”, especially anger, fear, disgust, and anxiety.
(That’s all quite a lot, isn’t it?).
Therefore, (and bearing in mind this is not at all applicable to everyone as we all have our individual tolerances for heat and some people’s bodies regulate heat better than others, but on the whole) if our external world is hotter, which heats up our internal world, which might mimic the physiological response we have when angry, coupled with feeling more tired, irritable and fatigued because our body is trying to compensate by keeping us cool, it makes sense, then, that we might be a bit more sensitive to feeling angry when the weather is warmer. Especially when it feels like there is no escape from the heat, which it certainly can feel like for me here in the UK.
What is also interesting is that the warmer weather not only impacts our feelings of anger but also our behaviour when feeling angry: that is, it can make people behave in less prosocial and more aggressive ways. For example, it has been found that retail workers are less likely to engage with customers in warmer temperatures; people are more likely to send racist Tweets during weather conditions outside of their comfort zones (which interestingly also includes colder weather, but the plotted curve still indicates a higher rate of racist Tweets in warmer climates – see the image below); it has also been documented that violent crime increases when temperatures increase.
So then, what to do if you are feeling more angry in the hotter weather but would like to refrain from engaging in anything anti-social or aggressive? Well, there are lots of suggestions that can be found on the internet about how to manage and cope in warmer weather, but something I find pretty helpful is a skill I have learned as part of being a DBT therapist and is taught as part of Dialectical Behavioural Therapy skills training. It is known as “Tip the Temperature”, one of four distress tolerance skills that make up the TIPP skill. See the video below for a fuller explanation of “Tip the Temperature”.
While the video recommends dunking your face in water or using an ice pack, I have also found that just splashing your face with cold water or running your wrists under the cold water tap works just as well. I even, when I can, opt for a cold shower. The science behind “Tip the Temperature” skills (which was touched on in the video above) relates to something called the mammalian dive reflex. And instead of writing about what that is I have found another video that explains it much better than I can… (YouTube is very handy, I must say).
I guess you might be thinking that all of this is pretty obvious. “Cold water helps when you’re hot?! Thanks, Captain Obvious!!” And to some extent it is pretty obvious. But I guess it is always helpful (or maybe that is an assumption on my part) to know the science behind these things as it helps contextualise these the advice and gives it more grounding. Therefore, as you have seen (I am assuming you have taken the time to watch the video), the mere fact of cold water coming into contact with your face kickstarts a physiological response that slows down your body (heart rate, breathing, etc), which has the effect of calming you down. Which can work for general stress, feelings of panic, or high emotional states, and therefore could work equally well when you may be feeling more angry or frustrated due to the heat. As I have mentioned above, applying cold water to your wrists also helps to cool your body temperature down. This is due to the fact that your blood vessels are closer to the skin at your pulse points (your neck is also one of these areas).
In summary, then, feeling more irritable, techy, or even angry in warmer weather is perfectly normal. If, however, you feel like the heat is getting to you and you feel like you might be about to lose your shit in one way or another, whether at work or at home, maybe take a few moments to go and splash some cold water on your face, neck or wrists. Sometimes I put my water bottle in the fridge and then hold that to my wrist while sitting at my desk. It can feel great. Or, if you can, have a cold shower. Or even better, if you are fortunate position to, go jump in a pool.
Hopefully this has been helpful, or at the very least interesting (or at the very, very least didn’t feel like a waste of time). If you have any thoughts you would like to share, you can do so in the comments, or alternatively come say hi on my Instagram page. Also, if you think that anyone might benefit from or enjoy reading this, please to share it with them.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read the things I write about. And have a good day (or not - no pressure).
Nice-ish.