Question: do people have changes to behaviour when weather changes

Lowri Evans answered on 11 Mar 2016:

Hello Kallie,

This is a really interesting question, and something I’ve thought about a lot. There’s been quite a bit of research on it too. A chap called Keller and his co-workers did some research to see if there was a link between mood states, people’s thinking and the weather. They found that when it’s pleasant in Springtime, people had a better mood, better memory and “broadened cognitive style” (meaning how open and able they were to learn new things). This was even better in people who spent lots of time outside. These relationships weren’t there all year round though, with really hot weather in the summer showing people having lower moods.

This links really well with what’s known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, which suggests that people get sadder in the winter when temperatures drop and the days are shorter. This can often cause things like excessive eating, sleeping and weight gain. Women are twice to three times more likely to suffer from this than men. We’re not sure why yet though!

I think that people’s moods and emotions can definitely be affected by the weather, but that the strength of that relationship is different for each person. For some people, a hot sunny day makes them really happy, but for others who struggle in the warm weather, they may be dreading it and having an awful day.

There’s a really interesting experiment that is open to schools, and is something you could definitely have a look at trying? http://www.metlink.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Behaviour_and_the_weather_instructions.pdf