Communion embodied: The influence of communion priming on temperature estimates

The growing body of research suggests that psychological warmth is closely related to physical warmth, namely temperature. Replicating previous work we show in two studies that merely thinking about personality traits related to communion (but not agency) influences physical experience of warmth. We also extend previous findings by revealing that (a) the influence of communal dimension on temperature perception is not limited to estimates of temperature in Celsius degrees, but is also evident for subjective experience of warmth, (b) the effect is evident not only for ambient temperature but also temperature of perceived object, and (c) the effect is not related to the sex of perceived person nor the participant᾿s sex. The results are interpreted in terms of embodiment theories. peerReviewed publishedVersion