Are People’s Moods Affected by the Weather?

You know how you feel when the weather changes, but there has always been a question as to whether the weather really does make every feel differently and affect their mood.

There has been some scientific study done on this subject and the results have been iffy at best. What they have found out is that the warmer the temperature the better someone who normally feels depressed will feel. Additionally, other weather factors such as not enough sun or even wind could make this person feel down again.

For those people that don’t suffer from depression, higher heat as well as extreme situations of rain made people more aggressive. The longer it rained over many days, the worse the aggression seemed to get. Hotter temperatures seemed to cause groups that interacted to have more aggression.

There is an actual disorder that is called ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’ (SAD). This is recognized as a real problem and involves people that relate a state of depression with a specific season. A majority of these people experience SAD during the fall and winter months, but surprisingly, there are people that experience it during the months for spring and summer.

The impact of weather on mood may also depend on what ‘weather’ type of personality each person has. The have broken down the various types:

• 17% of people love summer. They find that they are less angry, less fearful, and happier when the sun is shining and the temperatures are higher. They also find that they are less happy as well as experience more anger and anxiety when there is more precipitation.
• 27% of people hate summer. The more the sun shines the more angry and fearful and the less happy they are. The find that when there is more precipitation they felt less angry and fearful and actually felt happier.
• 9% of people hate the rain. They are less happy and angrier when there is more participation. Strangely, although they were happier during sunny days and higher temperatures they were also more fearful and yet less angry.
• 48% of the people are not affected by weather conditions at all.

While some may be seriously affected by certain weather, we can all take charge of how we feel by changing things around and adding a bit of fun into our routine. Do you know people that seem to be affected by changing weather conditions? Are they happy when it is colder or miserable when it rains? You might want to set up an experiment to test out your theories and see if people around you have mood changes with temperature and weather alterations.