"hot mugs" news and stories

This post will warm you best with a hot cup of something. For me, that's freshly roasted Gayo Mountain Sumatra.

We give hot tea when someone is having a bad day and needs to talk. We meet strangers over cups steaming coffee for first dates. We slurp on warm soups when we're sick. But why?

Reuters reports that a new study has found that simply clutching a warm cup can inspire warm feelings. We know this to an extent -- loving laundry straight out of the drier, clutching the warm cup on a cold day -- but there's more to it. John Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale says: "Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer -- more generous and trusting -- as well." Along with Lawrence Williams (University of Colorado at Boulder) Bargh conducted a series of tests to coordinate reactions based on what liquid beverages the person was holding.

When people held warm cups of coffee, "warmth" became a personality trait they would list in other people, where people holding iced coffee wouldn't. When needing to choose between a gift certificate for a friend and a gift for themselves, the heating pad holders chose the former while the ice packs chose the latter.

Looks like there is more truth to "Ice Queen" or "Ice King" than we thought. Maybe all they need is a good, steaming cup of something tasty.