INKTOBER DAY 20: FROST

20. Oktober 2023  •  1 Minuten

If it only takes a warm cup to make a warm heart, why do we still attribute all authority to some mysterious free will?

The results were dramatic. Among those who held the cold pad, about 75 percent chose a reward for themselves and only 25 percent chose a gift for a friend. Of those who handled and reviewed the hot pad, 54 to 46 percent chose a gift for a friend. That is a significant statistical difference in giving behavior. Yet the only factor that was different in the experiment was the temperature of the pad in the participants’ hands.

[…]

But this experiment, like most embodied cognition experiments, shows that there is a vis­ceral influence on our actions, even those that we believe come from purely logical thought processes. It also shows that not only is there a significant emotional and subconscious component, but we can be compelled to act by mundane and subtle quotidian forces. In this case, the behavior was triggered by the most trivial act (holding a therapeutic pad for a few moments).

— Thalma Lobel, The Cut

(→ Inktober drawing challenge 2023)