Extreme Heat Link to Increase Violence or Aggression

The effects of heat on aggression
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The effects of heat on aggression
Is extreme heat linked to an increase in violence? The weather has historically impacted human conduct, and social critics have incorporated heat imagery in their writings. In the mid-1700s, empirical methods were used to this idea for the first time. Several European and North American scholars discovered in the late 1800s and early 1900s that violent crime rates increased during the hottest seasons of the year and were more significant in places with warmer temperatures (Anderson, 1984).
According to the heat hypothesis, hot temperatures promote aggressive behavior. The heat effect is based on the findings that hot persons have higher rates of hostility than cool people. Causation assertions were dangerous in early research due to methodological challenges and a lack of sophisticated statistical analysis yet critical causal questions. For example, more crimes happen in the summer seasons than in the rest of the year, but this might be due to variances in people's everyday activity at different year periods (Anderson, 1984). People may be spending more time outside during the summer, which increases the likelihood of disputes. Summer activities may raise violence incidences, and heat-induced pain may or may not directly affect this. These mediated heat impacts are significant.
Literature Review
Environmental factors have an impact on a wide range of aggression-related behaviors. Unpleasantly warm temperatures and overcrowding, for instance, have adverse effects and cause interpersonal hatred (Rieck & Bell, 1984). Rieck & Bell (1984) wanted to see if there was a link between temperature and violent behavior in people. According to many studies, natural differences in the local environment significantly impact social and antisocial impacts and behaviors.
According to Baron & Lawton (1972), early theoretical reasoning and conventional folklore, a positive linear relationship existed, increasing temperatures resulting in heightened physical aggression. Laboratory experiments produced inconsistent results, with warmer temperatures causing greater hostility and decreasing aggression at other times. Following laboratory research, it was discovered that the adverse effects influenced the temperature-aggression relationship and that the relationship was curvilinear (‘U’ shaped) (Baron & Bell, 1976). Increases in negative impact (due to progressively unpleasant heat, for example) would result in greater hostility up to modest levels of adverse effect. However, further rises in harmful impact (or hot temperatures) would boost attempts to flee the setting at higher levels of adverse effects. If such escape actions are inconsistent with violent tendencies, the result will be reduced aggression at the most extreme levels of adverse effects. For example, in hot weather, the best method to decrease the harmful impact of a dispute with a neighbor is to end bickering and get into an air-conditioned room.
However, the curvilinear model and supporting data have many interpretational and methodological flaws (Anderson & Anderson, 1984). Most of them concentrate on the obviousness of l...