Social Thermoregulation: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

One key motivating force for bonding across animals is their need to regulate body temperature, also called social thermoregulation. This phenomenon has been extensively documented in animals, but only recently its existence has been suggested in humans. Psychology, however, has been faced with conflicting findings and the social thermoregulation literature has been no exception. We conducted a meta-analysis of the social thermoregulation literature in humans with the goal of estimating bias-corrected effect sizes and examining the evidential value. We included studies in English on humans and coded studies based on three theoretical frameworks (Bargh, Lakoff, and IJzerman). We found that temperature can be “primed” and that support for “compensation” is mixed. Social thermoregulation’s effect sizes are symmetrical and bidirectional and there was insufficient data available to examine claims about moderation by attachment and latitude. Further, based on the available information in the literature, we cannot establish whether social thermoregulatory behaviors and cognitions are automatic. Results for different subfields (e.g., Emotion, Interpersonal) and methods (e.g., verbal/visual or tactile prime) were mixed. Results for the full dataset were moderated by proportion of women in the dataset, but no moderation by climate was detected. Standard error also decreased over the years, meaning that publication practices in this literature are slightly improving, but heterogeneity is substantial. Better measurements, more diverse samples, and Registered Reports will be necessary for a higher-quality social thermoregulation literature.

Validation of the ISP131001 Sensor for Mobile Peripheral Body Temperature Measurement

“…Although these results seem to demonstrate a straightforward and strong link between temperature regulation Sarda, E., et al (2021). Validation of the ISP131001 Sensor for Mobile Peripheral Body Temperature Measurement.…”

“…DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.409 and interpersonal processes, not all of the effects in this literature have been successfully replicated (e.g., original study Williams & Bargh, 2008, failed replication Lynott et al, 2014 original study Bargh & Shalev, 2012, failed replication , very few studies have been pre-registered, and many (if not most) studies relied on small sample sizes too low to provide meaningful evidence (e.g., IJzerman & Semin, 2009;Williams & Bargh, 2008). Promisingly, a recent meta-analysis of social thermoregulation research does seem to provide general support for a link between social relationships and temperature, one that holds when applying various known techniques to reduce the effects of publication bias as much as possible (IJzerman et al, 2021).…”

Neglect of publication bias compromises meta-analyses of educational research

“…Most correction methods, including selection models, also assume independent effect sizes and are thus not intended for use in effect sets having a multi-level structure. The meta-analyst then needs to be aware that if dependencies are not properly modeled (see [ 61 ]) or handled otherwise (e.g., using a permutation procedure, see [ 62 ]), inflated type I error rates are to be expected. In general, the choice of bias correction methods requires either making assumptions or having knowledge about a given research program, and should be preceded by a method performance check (see, e.g., http://shinyapps.org/apps/metaExplorer/ , an online Shiny app; [ 14 ]).…”

Adaptation-By-Proxy: Contagion Effect of Social Buffering in an Artificial Society

“…One potential answer may lie in scenarios that we have not accounted for in our current experiments. For instance, the presence of a predator or competitor species, or difficult and/or changes in physical conditions, or changes in climate may have provided a catalyst for the emergence of additional (affect-based) social behaviours; including protection from physical harm (Dunbar, 2010), group foraging (Sutcliffe et al, 2012), or social thermoregulation (IJzerman et al, 2021), which may only be afforded to agents through affective bond formation or group membership. Though these are indeed areas for further investigation, the results from this experiment highlight how agents without social support can, in some social and physical contexts, benefit from the "social buffering" phenomenon.…”