Heartwarming: How Our Inner Thermostat Made Us Human

by Hans Rocha Ijzerman Narrated by Basil Sands

Overview

A hot cup of tea, coffee, or cocoa is calming and comforting¿but how can holding a warm mug affect our emotions? In Heartwarming, social psychologist Hans Rocha IJzerman explores temperature through the long lens of evolution.



Temperature contributed to our evolution¿our upright walking, our loss of fur, and our big brains¿and now continues to affect our lives in unexpected ways, and the link from a warm mug to our emotions is anything but straightforward. Studies have shown, for example, that a chilly deliberation room can predispose a jury to convict and that a cold day can make us more likely to buy a house. Our mind-body connection works the other way, too: thinking about friendly or caring people can make us feel warmer. Understanding how we subconsciously strive to keep our temperature in an optimal range can help us in our relationships, jobs, and even in the world of social media.



As IJzerman illuminates how temperature affects human sociality, he examines fascinating new questions: How will climate change impact society? Why are some people chronically cold, and others overheated? Can thermoregulation keep relationships closer, even across a distance? The answers offer new insights for all of us who want to better understand our bodies, our minds, and each other.

Editorial Reviews

APRIL 2021 - AudioFile

Narrator Basil Sands’s voice might strike listeners as a little detached as he explains social thermoregulation—the relationship between physical warmth and social warmth. Sands mostly keeps to the familiar tones of an announcer to guide listeners through a lot of terms and concepts. He lets in an occasional flourish, reflecting author Ijzerman’s humility when a study’s results go against expectations or emphasizing a chapter title in the style of a movie trailer. Ijzerman’s work is likely to pique listeners’ curiosity since it covers topics like seasonal affective disorder, brand identity and sales, and treatments for diabetes and cancer. Listeners will learn more about their inner thermostat and how it affects their lives. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

10/19/2020

Ijzerman, an associate professor of social psychology at Université Grenoble Alpes, debuts with a scattershot study of the concept of social thermoregulation: the idea that social connections have a physiological benefit in maintaining a person’s core body temperature. Thermoregulation, he argues, “reconciles the divorce of mind from body by yielding a profound insight into what it means to be human,” further claiming that one’s psychology can influence physical temperatures and vice versa. Colloquialisms (calling people “warm” or “icy”) can influence human bodies as well, Ijzerman writes, and taking a warm cup of coffee from someone can “prompt an increased judgment of social warmth.” The effect of holding beverages reappears frequently in the studies recounted throughout, though Izjerman admits results have often been inconclusive or nonreplicable, and he writes that “only a single project exists to demonstrate a relationship between network diversity and human core body temperature.” Even with this acknowledgment, he overreaches, such as when he interprets modern competition for fuel sources as being primarily about thermoregulation, or suggests that in the near future people will be able to use thermoregulation to “improve the quality of their close relationships.” There is much that may prove intriguing to practitioners of psychology or to the interested layperson, but less that is truly convincing. (Feb.)

Helen Fisher

"Hot tea, central heating, iced coffee, snuggling: physical warmth and cold deeply affect how we think and make decisions, even how we love—due to ancient brain wiring. This book on 'social thermoregulation' will improve the way you live, even explain the hidden payoffs of your zoom calls with friends, your nostalgia for home and your hours spent in cozy cafes. It’s hard science, original ideas, animal tales and revealing insights about humanity. It’s fascinating! "

Lydia Denworth

"From huddling penguins to the benefits of living where it’s warm, Hans Rocha IJzerman’s Heartwarming takes us on a smart and fascinating tour of body temperature—how we control it and how it controls us. It turns out that thermoregulation connects to most everything you care about: your health, your social life, and your ability to sell your house. Best enjoyed—you’ll see why—with a hot beverage."

Frans de Waal

"Hans Rocha IJzerman sticks a thermometer into every human and animal behavior to show us how much depends on outside and inside temperature. It is a surprising take that illuminates far more than you might think."

Antonio Damasio

"Thermal regulation is one of the most obvious aspects of life governance. Why would we have invented central heating and air conditioning if it were not? Still, it always takes a back seat to eating and drinking. Hans Rocha IJzerman’s informative book will change your mind."

APRIL 2021 - AudioFile

Narrator Basil Sands’s voice might strike listeners as a little detached as he explains social thermoregulation—the relationship between physical warmth and social warmth. Sands mostly keeps to the familiar tones of an announcer to guide listeners through a lot of terms and concepts. He lets in an occasional flourish, reflecting author Ijzerman’s humility when a study’s results go against expectations or emphasizing a chapter title in the style of a movie trailer. Ijzerman’s work is likely to pique listeners’ curiosity since it covers topics like seasonal affective disorder, brand identity and sales, and treatments for diabetes and cancer. Listeners will learn more about their inner thermostat and how it affects their lives. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2020-11-11
According to this insightful exploration of how humans relate to temperature, warmth is essential for biological survival as well as the advancement of civilization.

In a narrative that combines hard science and accessibility for general readers, social psychology professor Ijzerman, one of the world’s leading experts on “social thermoregulation in humans,” begins by describing studies in which subjects exposed to heat felt more sociable and kind than those exposed to cold. Later, however, he warns that when other scientists have repeated similar studies, the majority were unable to confirm the original findings. As a result, the author treads carefully, emphasizing large-scale research and acknowledging that “we psychologists are better at research than we are at giving practical advice and furnishing simple remedies.” Generating their own heat allows warmblooded animals to be incredibly active, but the process requires huge quantities of fuel; on the other hand, some snakes can go a year without food. Infants of all species seek warmth, and this quest persists throughout life. Although humans are intensely social, most of us do not understand the links among physical temperature and concepts of trust, friendship, and love. Even though many people believe in the universality of the connection between warmth and affection, “human cultures diverge with respect to affection-is-warmth.” Readers may be surprised by Ijzerman’s claim that “modern human relationships are organized around body-temperature regulation,” but he marshals impressive evidence in such chapters as “People Are Penguins, Too” and “Rat Mamas Are Hot.” It turns out that an infant’s search for warmth plays an essential role in attachment behavior later, and adults proactively seek it out, if not from physical proximity then through a romantic partner or social network. As the author shows, conventional wisdom about humans and warmth is often wrong. For example, studies do not confirm that weather influences our moods or that depression peaks in winter.

Explaining thermoregulation for a popular readership may seem a stretch, but the author succeeds admirably.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176236118
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	02/16/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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