ec25ba7f   
   From: dalton@nfld.com   
      
   On May 2, 2016, ⊙＿⊙ wrote   
   (in article<94e1baae-a0ce-4b7b-a774-9e43b0b8d25f@googlegroups.com>):   
      
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   > 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.   
   >   
   > A study by U.S. psychology researcher Matthew Keller and colleagues showed   
   > that beneficial effects of warm and sunny conditions on mood were only seen   
   > in people who had spent more than 30 minutes outdoors that day. Good weather   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)