Lawrence Williams, an assistant professor at CU - Boulder conducted a fascinating experiement where he found a connection between physical warmth and warm feelings towards others. Basically, he read a scenario about an individual to subjects and asked them to rate how likable the individual was. During this experiement, he was shifting some things he was holding and asked the subject to hold his cup of coffee for a few seconds. The ratings of likeability differed based on whether the coffee was hot or cold - those getting a warm cup rated the individual as warm and likeable and those holding the cold cup rated him as less likeable.
Our reaction may be based on biological responses - we trust those who are warm and physically connected to us and like them more (like our moms and dads). This is a very simple, but powerful, priming effect that can be used to your advantage in the workplace. For example, giving warm, and hearty, handshakes are usually associated with liked individuals. Or, having meetings over a cup of coffee (hot!) can produce positive feelings and associations.
You can find the original article in Science (2008):
Williams and Bargh
"Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal Warmth"
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;322/5901/606
1 comment:
Generally, I have seen it is easier to make people like you if you make them feel good in your presence. If that means warming people up, then so be it, or it could be that people just do not like a cold cup of coffee and judge the person subconsciously (at least) accordingly. Likewise, pushing people away is done through acts that make people feel bad. We seem to have mechanism in our body that trigger this good/bad feeling - euphoria or pain. I believe this sort of concept can gain enormous power if combined with Cialdini's book called Influence. Then, think about that in the sense of economics/marketing. Supply/demand reveal a bit about value and scarcity, but marketing also seeks to find the right pricing and/or convince others this is something they want. Something's value is not only a matter of how much euphoria it provides but also the amount of pain it avoids both in the present and the future. Imagine future contracts for euphoria/pain, hahaha. If we think of things in this way, people simply are trading present and future pain and euphoria.
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