Feeling Embarrassed or Guilty? A Cold Drink May Help

Summary: New research indicates that sipping a cold beverage can reduce feelings of shame, guilt and embarrassment.

Source: Society for Consumer Psychology

Overview

A recent study led by Jeff D. Rotman (Western University, Canada) and colleagues, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, explores how self-conscious emotions like shame, guilt and embarrassment are linked to physical sensations of warmth, and how people use temperature-related consumption to regulate those feelings. The researchers investigated whether experiencing regret triggers both psychological and physical warmth and whether people respond by choosing cooler items or environments to soothe that state.

Study design and main findings

The research consisted of multiple experiments that examined how different kinds of regret influence emotional state, perceived body temperature, and subsequent choices about food, beverages and environmental cues. In one experiment participants were instructed to recall either an action regret (something they did and later regretted, for example sending an angry message) or an inaction regret (something they did not do and later regretted, such as not pursuing a degree). After recalling the incident, participants rated their emotions.

Those who remembered action regrets reported higher levels of self-conscious emotions—shame, embarrassment, guilt and remorse—compared with those who recalled inaction regrets. These self-conscious emotions were associated with a subjective feeling of increased warmth.

When given a choice between warm and cold consumables (for example, hot chocolate or coffee versus iced coffee, ice cream or cold sports drinks), participants experiencing self-conscious emotions showed a preference for colder items. The results suggest that people seek cooling experiences to regulate the uncomfortable warmth-related sensations that accompany shame and embarrassment.

Further experiments and controls

Additional experiments replicated the cold-preference effect and ruled out simple arousal as an alternative explanation. One study measured participants’ reported warmth and found that self-conscious emotions elevated that sensation, which in turn increased preference for cold items. Another experiment tested whether exposure to imagery of cold environments could alter feelings of regret: after a hypothetical investment task with mixed outcomes, participants who viewed advertisements or imagery associated with cold climates (for example, an Arctic cruise) reported less regret about poor decisions than those exposed to warm-climate imagery. This supports the idea that contextual temperature cues can help mitigate the psychological intensity of regret.

Interpretation

The authors interpret the findings through the framework of embodied cognition, a perspective that emphasizes how physical sensations and bodily experiences shape emotional concepts and behavior. In this case, the sensation of warmth linked to self-conscious emotions motivates behaviors and choices that produce a cooling effect—either by consuming cold items or by mentally or physically shifting toward colder environments.

Practical implications

These results have potential applications for emotion regulation and consumer environments. On an individual level, a cold drink or briefly moving to a cooler setting may help reduce the intensity of shame or embarrassment. For businesses, the findings suggest that retailers or marketers selling high-cost or potentially regret-inducing products might consider cooler ambient temperatures or visual cues that evoke coolness to make customers feel more comfortable with purchases. The authors caution, however, that these are context-dependent effects and not a substitute for addressing the underlying causes of regret.

Research team: Jeff D. Rotman, Seung Hwan (Mark) Lee, and Andrew W. Perkins.

Publication: “The warmth of our regrets: Managing regret through physiological regulation and consumption,” Journal of Consumer Psychology. Published online September 2, 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcps.2016.08.008.

Press source: Heather Stringer — Society for Consumer Psychology.

Image source: NeuroscienceNews.com (illustrative).

The research shows that action regret produces stronger self-conscious emotions and a subjective feeling of warmth, which motivates people to prefer cold (versus hot) consumables and to seek colder environmental cues. Across multiple experiments, the effect held after controlling for arousal and was attenuated when participants encountered cold imagery. These studies suggest that embodied, temperature-related experiences can be used to regulate certain emotions, consistent with theories of embodied cognition.

Note: This summary presents the study’s methods and conclusions without adding new claims. For the full research details, refer to the original publication in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.