Many investigations have analyzed how we are influenced by the high temperatures sustained for many days in a row. For example, how they diminish our intellectual performance, something that almost all of us have experienced.
A paper published by US scientists at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-profit organization in that country, points out that temperatures above 26 ° C impair the cognitive ability of children in mathematical tests, but not in of reading comprehension. The authors suggest an explanation: when the sun tightens, the organism disperses less efficiently the heat produced by the activity of the brain, which ends up damaging the performance of the brain. This reasoning could also be applied to the tasks of adults.
The strong heat has labor and economic consequences. An investigation by the Harvard Business School based on interviews and laboratory tests links low temperatures and rainfall with an increase in the productivity of workers, who are more easily distracted on sunny days. When the weather is bad, people find it easier to concentrate on their obligations. If the thermometer rises tend to think about leisure activities that we could do abroad, but then leave the office and the heat is such that we have to get home.
On the other hand, it has been found that too hot weather increases the chances of people getting angry and even behaving aggressively. Several studies have found a relationship between very high temperatures and an increase in violence. In his book Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies (Criminology: theories, patterns and typologies), the American criminologist Larry J. Siegel provides statistics that show that, in his country, violent acts increase in July and August. As he explains, in those months people spend much more time abroad and are more related, which raises the possibility of conflicting interactions. In addition, they are weeks in which adolescents do not have class, protagonists of many of those confrontations. This explanation is valid especially for large cities, where temperatures are usually somewhat higher and the heat is more exasperating.
In this sense, it has been proven that in the busiest days of summer, drivers tend more to not respect the traffic lights, and there are more traffic accidents.
Psychologists have tried to explain the causes of the pernicious effect of high temperatures. Most of their arguments are based on the feeling of discomfort. If you do not have air conditioning, getting rid of the heat is almost impossible, especially if it is accompanied by humidity. In winter it is enough to get warm, but going half naked will do little in the heat of the heat. When people feel uncomfortable for causes that we can not control, we feel an anger that we tend to pour on others, in the form of sudden and uncontrollable anger.
The 40 degrees summer in many parts of Spain overwhelm anyone, but perhaps not enough to reach the conclusions of Marie Connolly, Professor of Economics at the University of Quebec. In a work published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, indicates that spending a whole day at temperatures above 32 ° C drastically affects the happiness of the individual, although, fortunately, it is usually a passing sensation.
