Many philosophers, writers and narrators have for ages shared a common belief that hot temperatures increase violence and aggression. Even in the English language we use expressions such as “hot tempered” or “hot headed” to describe the character of an aggressive person. Scientists have also been interested in this connection for years, and through various studies, they have also found evidence for the correlation.
Many laboratory, field, correlational and archival studies give an unanimous result: hot temperature causes violent crimes. The emphasis is on the word violent, because contradictional studies show that crimes also do occur in lower temperatures but they are most commonly non-violent. Also archival studies show that when the weather is hot e.g. a baseball player is more likely to hit the pitcher with a bat (source).
Still, the correlation between high temperature and violence is not flawless. For instance, what if everybody stayed at home on a hot day? Wouldn’t that prevent at least some occurrences of violence? Time is also a critical factor in this sense. Most of the violent crimes occur during the time when masses of people are most likely to engage in activities at the same time. In general, when a third variable changes the correlation between two variables so remarkably, we are talking about the Simpson paradox. In this case time changes the situation so that the relation between temperature and violence needs some modification.
Scientists have redefined the correlation and state that when the temperature rises above an uncomfortable level, the probability for aggression and violence rises as well. Therefore it is really important to ensure that especially public places such as schools, shopping malls and even prisons have an enhanced air conditioning system. A research also shows that drinking cold beverages will decrease the probability of becoming angry (source).
Especially today, during the times of increased global warming, it is really important for countries and cities to keep their citizens cool. Today when we discuss global warming, the emphasis seems to be on natural disasters or effects on agriculture. What we are very likely to forget that because global warming raises temperatures, the crime rates will also increase. Most global warming experts predict that if temperatures rise between 2°F and 8°F (1.1°C to 4.4°C) the rates of violent assaults will also increase by approximately 80,000 annually.
A new business idea for areas suffering from global warming (which by the way means everywhere on the planet) is to establish pop-up cooling rooms, places where temperature is substantially low and where people can spend a short time to cool down. This can be easily implemented with refrigerated shipping containers whose temperature can decrease drastically (on extreme even below zero). In order to decrease crime rates and increase public safety we really need to keep even the common people cool and prevent their blood from boiling.
Shanghai Metal Corporation is a major supplier of high quality refrigerated containers that are equipped with fresh air conditioning system and have a low Co2 footprint. More details about our reefer containers can be found in our website (www.smccontainer.com). Please also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Try also our mobile application by scanning the QR code below.
Tuomas P. // SMC Editor
Pictures and original articles: Psychology Today, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Sage Journals, Livestrong.com, Usmra.com, Kingwood.com, Everykidwins.com, Photobucket, Crazycreolemommy.com
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