The Weather Psychology:
Is Weather
Affect Your Mood?
If the change in weather is there change in your mood?
Is Weather
Affect Your Mood?
According to one of the research on the
connection between weather and mood, they
shouldn't be. I've covered these highly counter-
intuitive findings before and the title of that
article sums it up: Weather Has Little Effect
on Mood.
When you tell people this, though, they don't believe it. Most
of us intuitively think the weather has quite a strong effect on our mood. Many
assume that the rain and cold weather depresses us and sun and warmth perks us
up.
So why don't we see this effect in the research?
That's
the question a new study by Klimstra et al. (2011) tries to answer with a group of adolescents and their mothers.
They tested the idea that although our reactivity to weather averages out
across the whole population, there are large differences between individuals.
And it turns out this is true. In fact Klimstra et al. found
four distinct groups:
1. Unaffected: about half the people in their study fell into this group. For these people it didn't matter that much whether it was raining or sunny, hot or cold, their mood was mostly unaffected.
2. Summer lovers: here's the group you'd expect. For these people, their mood improved with less rain, more sun and higher temperatures (15% of adolescents and 30% of their mothers fell into this category).
3. Summer haters: here's a group of people you hear less about. These were the exact opposite of the summer lovers so they were happier when there was more rain, less sun and lower temperatures. Summer haters were more prevalent amongst the adolescents (27%) than their mothers (12%).
4. Rain haters: this group's mood didn't change with the temperature, sunshine or the wind; they just hated the rain. These guys were in the minority, making up 8% of adolescents and 12% of their mothers.
1. Unaffected: about half the people in their study fell into this group. For these people it didn't matter that much whether it was raining or sunny, hot or cold, their mood was mostly unaffected.
2. Summer lovers: here's the group you'd expect. For these people, their mood improved with less rain, more sun and higher temperatures (15% of adolescents and 30% of their mothers fell into this category).
3. Summer haters: here's a group of people you hear less about. These were the exact opposite of the summer lovers so they were happier when there was more rain, less sun and lower temperatures. Summer haters were more prevalent amongst the adolescents (27%) than their mothers (12%).
4. Rain haters: this group's mood didn't change with the temperature, sunshine or the wind; they just hated the rain. These guys were in the minority, making up 8% of adolescents and 12% of their mothers.
This helps explain why studies keep finding that weather doesn't
have much effect on mood: it's because we're different and these differences
were mostly being averaged out.
Most surprising are not the group of winter SADs (seasonally
affected disorder) but the summer SADs. We hear a lot about the former and
nothing about the latter, but from this study the summer SADs look like a
significant group of people, especially amongst adolescents.
There was also an association between how the adolescents and
their mothers reacted to the weather. This suggests your weather type may well
run in the family. If you're a summer hater, it's likely your parents are too.
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Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/585410
Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/585410
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