Physical and Social Warmth

The concept of a warm person has played a key role in western social psychological research, particularly in how people perceive others. Williams and Bargh (2008; Study 1) found that individuals holding a cup of warm beverage perceived the individuals they faced as psychologically warmer than those who held a cup of cold beverage. In this article, we set out to replicate and extend these findings by exploring whether various factors modify the effect of physical and social warmth. Specifically, we tested three moderating variables: participants’ awareness of the purpose of the experiment, warmth of participants’ personality and the target person’s gender. We found no main effect of physical warmth, and very little evidence for any moderating effects. It is clear from this and other recent studies that the embodiment effect is not simple to replicate and, therefore, is difficult to exploit for practical purposes.