Collabra: Psychology (Oct 2018)
The Human Penguin Project: Climate, Social Integration, and Core Body Temperature
- Hans IJzerman,
- Siegwart Lindenberg,
- İlker Dalğar,
- Sophia S. C. Weissgerber,
- Rodrigo C. Vergara,
- Athena H. Cairo,
- Marija V. Čolić,
- Pinar Dursun,
- Natalia Frankowska,
- Rhonda Hadi,
- Calvin J. Hall,
- Youngki Hong,
- Chuan-Peng Hu,
- Jennifer Joy-Gaba,
- Dušanka Lazarević,
- Ljiljana B. Lazarević,
- Michal Parzuchowski,
- Kyle G. Ratner,
- David Rothman,
- Samantha Sim,
- Cláudia Simão,
- Mengdi Song,
- Darko Stojilović,
- Johanna K. Blomster,
- Rodrigo Brito,
- Marie Hennecke,
- Francisco Jaume-Guazzin,
- Thomas W. Schubert,
- Astrid Schütz,
- Beate Seibt,
- Janis H. Zickfeld
Affiliations
- Hans IJzerman
- Université Grenoble Alpes
- Siegwart Lindenberg
- Rijksuniversiteit Groningen; Tilburg University
- İlker Dalğar
- Middle East Technical University
- Sophia S. C. Weissgerber
- Universität Kassel
- Rodrigo C. Vergara
- Universidad de Chile
- Athena H. Cairo
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Marija V. Čolić
- University of Belgrade
- Pinar Dursun
- Afyon Kocatepe University
- Natalia Frankowska
- SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Rhonda Hadi
- University of Oxford
- Calvin J. Hall
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Youngki Hong
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Chuan-Peng Hu
- Tsinghua University
- Jennifer Joy-Gaba
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Dušanka Lazarević
- University of Belgrade
- Ljiljana B. Lazarević
- University of Belgrade
- Michal Parzuchowski
- SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Kyle G. Ratner
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- David Rothman
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Samantha Sim
- Singapore Management University
- Cláudia Simão
- ISPA Instituto Univeritário, Lisbon
- Mengdi Song
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Darko Stojilović
- University of Belgrade
- Johanna K. Blomster
- University of Oslo
- Rodrigo Brito
- Lusófona University
- Marie Hennecke
- University of Zürich
- Francisco Jaume-Guazzin
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Universidad del Desarrollo
- Thomas W. Schubert
- Singapore Management University, SG; Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, ISCTE-IUL
- Astrid Schütz
- Otto-Friedrichs-Universität Bamberg
- Beate Seibt
- University of Oslo
- Janis H. Zickfeld
- Otto-Friedrichs-Universität Bamberg
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.165
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 4,
no. 1
Abstract
Social thermoregulation theory posits that modern human relationships are pleisiomorphically organized around body temperature regulation. In two studies (N = 1755) designed to test the principles from this theory, we used supervised machine learning to identify social and non-social factors that relate to core body temperature. This data-driven analysis found that complex social integration (CSI), defined as the number of high-contact roles one engages in, is a critical predictor of core body temperature. We further used a cross-validation approach to show that colder climates relate to higher levels of CSI, which in turn relates to higher CBT (when climates get colder). These results suggest that despite modern affordances for regulating body temperature, people still rely on social warmth to buffer their bodies against the cold.
Keywords
