Warming Up to Strangers, with Coffee?

We drink a lot of coffee in the office, so imagine my surprise when I read researchers have found that

people who held a cup of hot coffee for 10 to 25 seconds warmed to a perfect stranger. Holding a cup of iced coffee had the opposite effect . . . .

The study, to be published today in the journal Science, is the latest to show how physical properties such as distance or temperature can unconsciously influence emotional reactions. In a previous experiment, for example, people who were asked to plot remote points on a graph expressed distant feelings about relatives afterward.

“Our mental processes are not separate and detached from the body,” said John A. Bargh, a Yale University psychologist and co-author of the current study . . . .

But when it comes to personal relationships, researchers said, a hot beverage can’t always overcome awkward habits and distasteful traits.

“If I had a nice, warm cup of coffee with Adolf Hitler, I’m still not going to like him,” Bargh said.

Now there’s some good news. We can continue drinking coffee and disliking Hitler.