1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:11,280 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Folke bomb here. Our collective imagination has 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:16,319 Speaker 1: a powerful association between rainfall and melancholy. We've come to 4 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:20,120 Speaker 1: assume that dark, cloudy skies and the drumbeat of raindrops 5 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,800 Speaker 1: on our windows make people feel sad and forlorn. Are 6 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:26,760 Speaker 1: only consolation being that the sun will come out again. 7 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:32,040 Speaker 1: But do rainy days really get us down? Science says 8 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: yes and no. Research indicates that weather doesn't significantly affect 9 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 1: mood for most people, although one study has suggested that 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,720 Speaker 1: a minority may indeed feel worse when it rains. We 11 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: spoke by email with David Watson, the Andrew J. McKenna 12 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: Family Professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame 13 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: and author of the book Mood and Temperament, which describes 14 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: his own research on rainfall and mood. He said, I 15 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,720 Speaker 1: think this popular belief, which I shared to some extent 16 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:05,200 Speaker 1: despite my own work in this area, represents what psychologists 17 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: call a confirmation bias. For example, if I'm feeling down 18 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: and look outside and see it raining, I may conclude 19 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,760 Speaker 1: that I'm feeling gloomy because it's raining. However, if I'm 20 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: feeling down and look outside and see bright sunshine, I 21 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: quickly conclude that it has nothing to do with the weather. 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: So we tend to notice and remember those events that 23 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: are consistent with our beliefs and expectations. In one study, 24 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:33,600 Speaker 1: for example, Watson and a colleague followed eighteen Japanese college 25 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: students over a three month period in nineteen eighty, assessing 26 00:01:36,959 --> 00:01:40,199 Speaker 1: their daily moods and correlating the ratings with weather summaries. 27 00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: To the researchers surprise, their analyzes of the data all 28 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: demonstrated that the student's mood was unrelated to the weather. 29 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: Watson subsequently gathered data from four hundred and seventy eight 30 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: college students in Texas during various periods during the mid 31 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,240 Speaker 1: to late eighties and early nineties, which he again compared 32 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: to weather records. The result essentially was the same. Even 33 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: on days when it rained an inch or more about 34 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,120 Speaker 1: twenty five million liters and there was no more than 35 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: ten percent possible sunshine, there seemed to be no significant 36 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:16,120 Speaker 1: effect on mood. Watson said, my research tried to tease 37 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:19,680 Speaker 1: apart various potential factors, such as the presence versus absence 38 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:24,400 Speaker 1: of rain and daylight versus cloudiness. These variables are confounded 39 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: as it rarely rains when the sky is sunny. I 40 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:31,440 Speaker 1: really could not find much evidence that anything influenced people's mood. 41 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,080 Speaker 1: When I started this research, I was very concerned about 42 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,679 Speaker 1: being able to locate the source of any effects. For instance, 43 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: if people feel blue on a rainy day, it could 44 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,079 Speaker 1: be the precipitation or the cloudiness, or the barometric pressure, 45 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: or the fact that the rain restricts their activities and 46 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,800 Speaker 1: or makes them more stressful or less pleasant. However, I 47 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:55,760 Speaker 1: really found no evidence that people felt sad on rainy days, 48 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:59,520 Speaker 1: so none of these variables seems to be crucially important. 49 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 1: Other studies seemed consistent with Watson's findings that whether isn't 50 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:08,240 Speaker 1: that potent of an influence on mood, though two studies 51 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: suggest that rain may have some effect on a minority 52 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 1: of individuals. A study by Bulgarian researchers published in twenty 53 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: eleven in Advances in Science and Research found a negative 54 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,240 Speaker 1: effect on emotion when the skies suddenly changed to cloudy, 55 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: but the impact varied. Emotionally stable people were more resistant 56 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,240 Speaker 1: to the influence of weather changes, while those who were 57 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:33,960 Speaker 1: emotionally unstable were more strongly dependent upon them. Another study 58 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: of four hundred and ninety seven Dutch adolescence in their mothers, 59 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 1: published in twenty eleven in the journal Emotion, found that 60 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: forty seven point eight percent of the subjects were unaffected 61 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,400 Speaker 1: by the weather, that sixteen point eight percent were summer 62 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: lovers who reacted positively to warm, sunny weather, that twenty 63 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,240 Speaker 1: six point eight percent were summer haters, and that eight 64 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: point seven percent were rain haters, who were measurably angrier 65 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: and less happy on days with more our precipitation. We 66 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: also spoke by email with the lead author of the study, 67 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: Theo Klimstra, an associate professor in the Department of Developmental 68 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: Psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He said the 69 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: group of rain haters was pretty small, but the summer 70 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: lovers didn't like the rain either, so the total group 71 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: of people who didn't like the rain was about of 72 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: the sample. The main difference between the rain haters and 73 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: summer lovers was that the rain haters didn't react as 74 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 1: strongly to a lack of sun and low temperature as 75 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: the summer lovers did, whereas summer lovers didn't react as 76 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: strongly to the rain as the rain haters did. Klimstra 77 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: said it was surprising that about the subjects weren't negatively 78 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:47,760 Speaker 1: affected by the rain. Quote. We examined whether the Big 79 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: five traits openness, conscientiousness, extra version, agreeableness, and neuroticism were 80 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,479 Speaker 1: related to our weather types, but that wasn't the case. 81 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:00,160 Speaker 1: The most likely explanation is that people are just us 82 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: bothered by rain than we like to believe. Today's episode 83 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,839 Speaker 1: was written by Patrick J. Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang. 84 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other topics, visit 85 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of by 86 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:18,280 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit 87 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 88 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:22,120 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.