From: judgebean23x@gmail.com   
      
       
      
   Here Comes the Sun: How the Weather Affects Our Mood   
   By Nick Haslam, University of Melbourne | March 16, 2016   
   Last Updated: March 17, 2016 8:52 am   
      
   Exposing skin to sunlight produces vitamin D, promoting the brain's production   
   of serotonin, which lifts mood.  (yaruta/iStock)   
   Exposing skin to sunlight produces vitamin D, promoting the brain's production   
   of serotonin, which lifts mood. (yaruta/iStock)   
      
   The weather supplies many metaphors for our changeable minds. Moods can   
   brighten and darken, dispositions can be sunny, futures can be under a cloud,   
   and relationships can be stormy. Like the weather, our emotions sometimes seem   
   like fickle forces of    
   nature: unstable, enveloping, and uncontrollable.   
      
   Weather provides a vivid language for describing our emotional atmosphere, but   
   does it also influence it? Do gray days bring gray moods? When the mercury   
   rises, does our blood boil?   
      
   Of the many aspects of weather, sunshine is the most intimately tied to mood.   
   Although the link is weaker than many people imagine, sunlight has repeatedly   
   been found to boost positive moods, dampen negative moods, and diminish   
   tiredness.   
      
   Watch: Here Comes the Sun! Swimming Season in the UK!   
       
   People enjoy a summer evening performance at Bryant Park in Manhattan on July   
   10, 2015. (Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times)   
   People enjoy a summer evening performance at Bryant Park in Manhattan on July   
   10, 2015. (Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times)   
      
      
   Anything that alters our moods can affect our behavior. Happy people are more   
   favorably disposed to one another, and accordingly, people are more helpful   
   when the sun is out.   
      
   One study found that Minnesotan diners tipped more generously on sunny days.   
   Investors may benefit in the same way as waitresses: American studies have   
   observed better daily stock returns in sunny weather.   
      
   The sun may melt hearts as well. In a 2013 study by French psychologist   
   Nicolas Guéguen, an attractive male confederate approached unaccompanied young   
   women and solicited their phone numbers. "I just want to say that I think   
   you're really pretty," he    
   cooed. "I'll phone you later, and we can have a drink together someplace."   
   "Antoine" achieved an impressive success rate of 22 percent on sunny days but   
   only 14 percent when it was cloudy.   
      
   Guéguen's finding of sun-assisted flirtation followed up his earlier studies   
   on the effects of exposure to flowers (2011) and pastry aromas (2012) in   
   priming women for seduction. Can we expect future studies on chocolate and   
   puppies? Rarely have    
   psychologists lived up to national stereotypes so well: The Americans study   
   money; the French study romance.   
      
      
   Aspects of weather beyond heat and sunshine have also been shown to affect   
   mood.    
   And the Australians study shopping. Research by Sydney's Joseph Forgas shows   
   that sunshine can also affect our mental sharpness. Shoppers exiting a   
   boutique were quizzed about 10 unusual objects--including a toy tractor and a   
   pink piggy bank--that had    
   been placed in the check-out area. They correctly recalled seven times as many   
   objects on cloudy days as on sunny ones.   
      
    (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)   
   Gray weather may similarly induce sober, gray-flanneled thinking. (Photo by   
   Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)   
      
       
      
   This effect accords with other findings that negative moods induce careful and   
   systematic cognition. Gray weather may similarly induce sober, gray-flanneled   
   thinking.   
      
   In a paper titled "Clouds Make Nerds Look Good," Uri Simonsohn showed that   
   university admissions officers weighted the academic credentials of applicants   
   more on overcast days, and their non-academic attributes more on sunny ones.   
      
   Temperature can also affect our mind and behavior, independently of sunshine.   
   The more it departs from an ideal of around 68 degrees Fahrenheit, the more   
   discomfort we feel. One study found that rates of helping declined as   
   temperatures dropped below or    
   rose above this value.   
      
   In addition, the higher the temperature, the more people are likely to act   
   aggressively. Rates of aggression are higher in hotter years, months, days,   
   and times of day, a pattern observable for murders, riots, and car-horn   
   honking. Baseball pitchers are    
   more likely to hit batters on hot days, an effect that isn't merely a result   
   of having sweat-slick fingers.   
      
   Heat may also increase verbal aggression. A recent study of news media   
   coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics found that stories filed by American   
   journalists contained more negative words on hotter days, even when they were   
   writing about China in general    
   rather than the games in particular.   
      
   Aspects of weather beyond heat and sunshine have also been shown to affect   
   mood. Humidity tends to make people more tired and irritable. Barometric   
   pressure fluctuations can alter moods and trigger headaches, some studies   
   finding a link between low    
   pressure and suicide. On rainy days, people report lower satisfaction with   
   their lives.   
      
   Weather influences our psychology in myriad subtle ways. Why this might be the   
   case is not entirely obvious. One possibility is that the effects of weather   
   on mood are primarily physiological. Excess heat causes discomfort by taxing   
   our capacity to    
   thermoregulate, and this causes irritability and aggression.   
      
   (lolostock/iStock)   
   Indeed, the effects of weather on mood depend on our behavior and on how we   
   think. (lolostock/iStock)   
      
       
      
   Exposing skin to sunlight produces vitamin D, promoting the brain's production   
   of serotonin, which lifts mood. Exposure to bright lights, a treatment for   
   people affected with the winter depressions of seasonal affective disorder   
   (SAD), also enhances the    
   mood of unaffected people.   
      
   However, the effects of weather on mood are not straightforwardly biological.   
   They are also psychological and social. One reason why heat is associated with   
   aggression is that people interact more in public in hot weather.   
      
   Indeed, the effects of weather on mood depend on our behavior and on how we   
   think. Most basically, weather will only influence us if we expose ourselves   
   to it. On one estimate, people in industrialized societies tend to spend only   
   7 percent of their time    
   outside.   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)