Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation(感觉) of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception(感知) of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses(假设), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.

Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation(感觉) of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
下次有顾客来你办公室，给他端一杯咖啡。当你做网上假日购物时，请记得手中要拿一大杯冰茶。身体感到温暖会使人情绪高昂。而手拿冷饮会防止作出不明智的决定。这些都是心理学家约翰 巴格从最近的研究中得出的实际结果。
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception(感知) of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
心理学家历来认为，一个人能感知另一个人的温暖与否在人际关系中起着重要的决定性作用。判断某个人是“冷”还是“暖”是一个首要考量的问题。其重要性甚至超过了证明“冷”的人可能会更有能力的说法。这种“冷暖”说的根据大部分来源于一个人在婴幼儿时期的经历。巴格认为，当婴儿对周围世界的概念化的认知被其身体的感觉，尤其是其对“冷暖”的感觉所体现出来之时，正是哈利 哈罗在1958年发表了他的经典研究成果的时候。哈罗的研究表明，猴子比较喜欢呆在布做的“母亲”的身旁而不喜欢呆在铁丝做成的“母亲”旁边。甚至于当铁丝做成的“母亲”携带一个装有食物的瓶子时，猴子也不屑一顾。哈罗的工作以及以后的研究一直让心理学家从帮助孩子培养成为具有正常社会技能的健康成年人的关爱者角色转变到也越来越迫切需要温暖的身体接触的信奉者角色。
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses(假设), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.

感知“冷暖”在社会判断中似乎是普遍存在的。尽管并没有在世界范围内做过此类的研究，巴格说，将人描述为“暖”或“冷” 对许多文化而言是司空见惯的。在几十个国家进行的研究中已经发现了这些感知影响着人们的判断力。
为了测试人的生理温暖和心理温暖之间的关系，巴格对41个大学生进行了一项实验，。一位对这项研究的假设并不知情的研究助理随机地将热咖啡或冷饮交给学生拿着，同时研究人员填写了一张简短的信息表。饮料收回之后，学生们被要求在特定描述的基础上对测试者A进行评分。结果表明：那些短时间手拿热饮的学生在和一直手握冷饮的学生相比之后认为测试者A给人更加温暖的感觉。
“甚至当我们在进行抽象思维时，我们依然在根据我们的生理体验来作判断”。巴格下结论道。