Are sensations of hot and cold formed by habit?

Factual Questions
1

Sitting in the mustly library at my University here in Paris, I’m am perspiring even though I’m wearing a light short-sleeved shirt. There are French people (blanc, black, et beur) who are still wearing heavy coats, which is making me even more hot.

This is something I’ve noticed in all my time abroad. There have been numerous occassions, for instance, where I’ve seen people wearing scarves in near-80 degree weather. I’ve hear a lot of Americans note this as well. We’re out there, wearing shorts and sandals, while many other people are still wearing long sleeves and pants.

I’m wondering if this is a product of habit. For instance, I grew up in place much hotter than France, yet we always had air-conditioning. In that sense, we could always get away from the heat. Also, air-conditioning makes the hot even hotter.

So, if I stay away from air-conditioning for a long time, will I become less hot-natured?

2

I’d say yes.

Another example is that people from the Arctic to the Equator all have the habit of walking around outdoors with their face naked. Facial skin isn’t any more adapted to freezing temperatures then, say, your legs are. It’s just that we are used to cold rain or hot sun on our faces.

3

Hah! I used to like walking into work in Mexico wearing nothing but short sleeves, and seeing all of the Mexicans wearing thick coats, scarves, ski masks, and huddling around their coffee. It couldn’t have been under 50 degrees for crying out loud.

On the opposite extreme in another part of Mexico it was regularly over 100 degrees, but (yeah, yeah, here comes the cliche) it was dry heat. Being from a muggy place, the dry heat wasn’t too much of a bother (other than having a black-on-black car) but yet all of the Mexicans would shy away from the noon sun.

Okay, a third part of Mexico is when I become a lazy jerk – the ocean in the summer. You’d think a nice, balmy 82 would be perfectly fine, and while everyone else is outside playing, I’m suffering from way the heck too much humidity.

Should I go into how my wife suffers here in Michigan where the weather changes drastically over the course of a year?

4

Someone I know commented on the general tendency of people living in areas with distinct seasons to treat a 60 degree fall day and a 60 degree spring day differently. In Fall, 60 degrees is cold, people bundle up. In spring, 60 degrees is warm, people strip clothes off.

This is not universally true, but there certainly is a tendency to notice changes in temperature, and which direction the change is, rather than the absolute temperature.

5

I wear shorts and a tee shirt pretty much year round. I live in a temperate zone, 39° N, to be precise, and the daytime temperature varies from freezing, to 95° F for almost all days in the last two decades. When it goes below forty or so, I wear a jacket. When I was a pedestrian, I wore long pants if it was cold, and the jacket was a bit more padded. Now I have a car, so the jacket doesn’t come out all that often. I was born here.

My coworkers were mostly born within 10° of the Equator. They bundle up if the temperature goes below seventy. Scarves and long coats if it goes below fifty. Freezing and they refuse to go out at all except in emergencies.

Sounds like a confirmation, doesn’t it? But other folks, born here, or even further north mostly show much more sensitivity to cold than I do. In fact, no one I know finds temperature to be less of a concern than I do. It just doesn’t matter to me. Yes, I know it’s cold. Cold doesn’t hurt, though. And besides, it’s a hundred feet between my heated car, and the heated building! What does that take, two minutes at a stroll? Three minutes, if I stop and discuss the weather with someone on the way in?

I think the trend is overwhelmed by variations among individuals. Some like it hot, some like it cold, and some don’t much care.

(Oddly, though, in my car are two blankets, a hat, long johns, long pants, gloves, a coat, and spare shoes and socks. Being prepared is different than being concerned.)

Tris

“Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty.” ~ Erwin Schrodinger

6

Some places do have different cultural rules about clothing - not only do people in a lot of other countries just not wear shorts and sandals, but I think I’ve read that school children in Japan change from their winter uniforms to summer uniforms on the same day, no matter what the weather’s like. So noting dress doesn’t necessarily inform you on how other people feel the weather.

7

Maybe it’s that Americans have that extra, cosy layer of blubber to keep them warm? :wink: