What Makes Comfort Food Comforting?

Temperature affects our sense of interpersonal warmth — and our behavior toward others.

Classic studies demonstrated that physical contact is important for attachment. Other study findings suggested that people associate physical warmth with psychological warmth and trust. The insular cortex appears to be involved in both processes, as well as in trust and empathy. Does a relation exist between the physical feeling of warmth (temperature) and behavioral warmth? These investigators examined whether holding a hot cup of coffee would produce a sense of interpersonal warmth and trust.

The authors assigned 41 undergraduates (mostly female; average age, 18) to hold a cup of either hot or iced coffee briefly during a elevator ride to allow an investigator (blind to the study’s purpose) to record demographic information. In the experim…

Reviewing Author

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience