Keep your cool

Crime goes up with temperature, says a new study. 2

You're constantly inundated with information about global warming wreaking havoc on wildlife, plants, oceans, human health, and everything else unfortunate enough to be under our sun. Do you feel angry? Does it just make you want to punch or steal or shoot something?

Well, it could be less your reaction to the news and more just the warming weather itself. A new study by Canadian criminal psychologist Ehor Boyanowsky posits that crime rises in correlation with temperature.

Boyanowsky learned through a series of experiments conducted at 10, 20, and 30 degrees Celsius [50, 68, and 86 degrees Fahrenheit], that when circumstances cause a person to become irritated or aggressive, that aggression will be heightened by heat.

Using a thermometer that fits in the tympanic membrane of the eardrum, he was able to measure the temperature changes in the brains of a number of people subjected to a variety of stressful situations at the three temperatures ...

And what he found was that every time a subject was insulted, the temperature of his or her anterior hypothalamus would rise. And the hotter the ambient temperature, the longer the brain temperature remained elevated.

Um, I think just having something stuck in my eardrum would be enough to piss me off.

Boyanowsky also advises the anger-prone not to wear helmets, as that makes the brain hotter. And as I fully expect that we all will be wearing helmets constantly in the future, to protect ourselves from small meteorites, falling dead birds, and "eco-terrorist" attacks, that could be a problem.

Sarah K. Burkhalter is Grist’s assistant managing editor.

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  1. Simon Donner Posted 6:48 am
    21 Jul 2006

    climate and moodI'm surprised the impact of climate on people's moods isn't been discussed more, either through legitimate research... or just plain comedy. Research does show people are more irritable and uncomfortable when it is hot and humid outside(more migranes, lower reaction times, shorter tempers, etc). The climate in different areas does seems to be realted to the culture... things are slower in the tropics, tensions run high in hot, crowded cities, etc. I'm worried about what is happening to the formerly genial population of Canadian cities like Toronto as there more and more hot, humid summer days.  

    http://simondonner.blogspot.com

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  2. kmp Posted 4:20 am
    25 Jul 2006

    We've known this for ages......well, 20 years at least.  I am the only one who remembers Siouxsie & The Banshee's classic "92 Degrees?"  About how violent crime increases at 92 degrees Fahrenheit?  


    The day drags by like a wounded animal

    The approaching disease, 92 degrees

    The blood oin our veins and the brains in our head

    The approaching unease, 92 degrees

    Long ago in the headlines, they noticed it too

    But too late for the loved ones and nearly for you .....
    Shaky lines on the horizon

    Snakey lines invade each person

    Watch the red line creeping upwards

    Watch the sanity line weaken

    The volcanic depths of Hades' ocean

    Bubble under, these crazed eruptions

    It wriggles and wrythes and bites within,

    Just below the sweating sun
    I wondered when this would happen again

    Now I watch the red line, reach that number again

    The blood in our veins and the brains in our head .....
    Drink the water with jagged glass

    Eat the cactus with bleeding mouth

    Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees
    Shaky lines on the horizon

    Snakey lines invade each person

    Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees

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