If you're feelin' chilly, a new study suggests that might put you in the mood for a good chick flick.
A new study that will be published in August in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that the physical feeling of coldness is linked with a greater preference for emotional feelings of warmth, which in this study translated into a movie preference for romance.
Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of Colorado, Boulder, conducted four separate studies to come to the finding. In one of them they had study participants drink cold tea or warm tea, and then had them choose movies from a rental company. They found that the cold tea consumption increased the likelihood of participants selecting a romance over other movie genres, like comedies or thrillers.
Similarly, researchers found that people were also more likely to choose a romantic movie if they were in a cold room or if it was colder outside.
On the flip side, past research has shown that physical feelings of warmth could also trigger warm-and-fuzzy feelings inside.
A 2008 study in the journal Science suggested that feeling actual physical warmth triggered feelings of interpersonal warmth. In that study, researchers found that study participants who held a cup of hot coffee were more apt to judge another person as "warm" -- possessing personality traits of generosity and caring. And, study participants who held a hot pad were more likely to buy gifts for other people instead of themselves.