The Human Penguin Project: Climate, Social Integration, and Core Body Temperature

Hans Ijzerman,Marie Hennecke,Rhonda Hadi,Youngki Hong,Astrid Schütz,Samantha Sim,Dušanka Lazarević,Ljiljana B Lazarević,Rodrigo C Vergara,İlker Dalğar,Natalia Frankowska,Siegwart Lindenberg,Beate Seibt,Kyle G Ratner,Rodrigo Brito,Thomas W Schubert,Cláudia Simão,Darko Stojilović,Calvin J Hall,Chuan-Peng Hu,Athena H Cairo,Mengdi Song,Marija Čolić ,Jennifer A Joy-Gaba ,Francisco Jaume-Guazzin ,Michał Parzuchowski ,David J Rothman ,Johanna Katarina Blomster ,Sophia Christin Weißgerber ,Pınar Dursun ,Janis Zickfeld

doi:10.1525/collabra.165

Abstract

Social thermoregulation theory posits that modern human relationships are pleisiomorphically organized around body temperature regulation. In two studies (N = 1755) designed to test the principles from this theory, we used supervised machine learning to identify social and non-social factors that relate to core body temperature. This data-driven analysis found that complex social integration (CSI), defined as the number of high-contact roles one engages in, is a critical predictor of core body temperature. We further used a cross-validation approach to show that colder climates relate to higher levels of CSI, which in turn relates to higher CBT (when climates get colder). These results suggest that despite modern affordances for regulating body temperature, people still rely on social warmth to buffer their bodies against the cold.

Highlights

Social thermoregulation theory posits that modern human relationships are pleisiomorphically organized around body temperature regulation
Beyond known benchmarks like height, weight, and sex, we discovered that complex social integration (CSI) was one of the most important predictors of core body temperature (CBT)
At least for relational motivations that are derived from social thermoregulation, the results suggest that being closer to the equator makes one feel warmer and leads to less urgency to engage in CSI

Summary

Introduction

Social thermoregulation theory posits that modern human relationships are pleisiomorphically organized around body temperature regulation. In two studies (N = 1755) designed to test the principles from this theory, we used supervised machine learning to identify social and non-social factors that relate to core body temperature. This data-driven analysis found that complex social integration (CSI), defined as the number of high-contact roles one engages in, is a critical predictor of core body temperature. We further used a cross-validation approach to show that colder climates relate to higher levels of CSI, which in turn relates to higher CBT (when climates get colder) These results suggest that despite modern affordances for regulating body temperature, people still rely on social warmth to buffer their bodies against the cold. In its most elementary form endotherms (i.e., animals that generate their own heat) maintain temperature at homeostatic levels in various ways, such as yawning, panting, or sweating when temperatures increase or shivering when temperatures decrease (Gallup & Gallup, 2008; Janský, 1973)

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