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Curr Psychol (2012) 31:318324
DOI 10.1007/s12144-012-9148-z
Gary W. Lewandowski Jr. & Natalie J. Ciarocco & Emily L. Gately
Published online: 14 July 2012# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract Recent research has established that individuals perception of global warming is malleable such that individuals report that it is a more serious problem when they experience higher outdoor or indoor temperatures (Li et al. Psychological Science, 22(4), 454459, 2011; Risen and Critcher Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(5), 777793, 2011). We extend these findings on the experience of actual temperature by testing whether the embodied experience of temperature, manipulated by participants chewing cinnamon or mint gum, can activate the concept of temperature and influence perception of global warming. As predicted, compared to those who did not chew gum, those experiencing embodied temperature through chewing gum reported greater concern for global warming, but not other social problems, and were more likely to volunteer for a global warming group on campus. This suggests that the physical experience of tasting cinnamon or mint gum activated the larger conceptual system of temperature changes that subsequently influenced beliefs about global warming.
Keywords Embodied cognition . Global warming . Perception . Behavior
The issue of global warming in the United States is both scientific and political. Yet the extent to which an individual believes in global climate change is also psychological in nature. While individual factors may play a role in ones belief in climate change, immediate situational factors, such as temperature, may also be involved.
Recently there has been a trend toward examining how subtle factors may influence individuals. These factors can exist in the general environment as in the case of research demonstrating that participants who walked in a park performed better on an attention task than those who walked in a downtown area (Berman et al. 2008), that participants in a dimly lit room were more likely to exaggerate success (Zhong et al. 2010), or that participants in a clean-smelling room were willing to donate more money than those in a regular smelling room (Liljenquist et al. 2010).
G. W. Lewandowski Jr. (*) : N. J. Ciarocco : E. L. GatelyDepartment of Psychology, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764, USA e-mail: [email protected]
The Effect of Embodied Temperature...