Does weather really affect mood?

Clouds above snowy mountain blocking out the sun. Justine Baginski

Weather changes every day, and so do people’s moods. Talk about “seasonal depression” floats into the air as soon as temperature drops and clouds begin to form, but weather may not affect mood as much as some believe. 

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a type of depression that typically occurs due to weather conditions and seasons, most notably fall and winter. It is thought that the disorder is caused by a lack of UV or shorter days, but these are all speculative.  

One common misconception about Seasonal Affective Disorder forms from the idea that it can occur from a single particularly glum winter. This isn’t necessarily true as SAD comes from prolonged exposure to specific conditions, not just from a one-off experience.  

Pinning down the real reason people feel saddened during cloudy days comes down to mostly educated guesses. Very few studies exist to prove that weather, UV radiation or temperature do affect a person’s mood.  

“Most research with weather and mood is going to be correlational,” said Saddleback College psychology professor Kathryn Damm. “We’re stuck with making guesses as to what matters and trying to see if we see any confirmatory evidence about that.” 

Regardless of how it occurs, a few things can improve the gloom. One is to increase exposure to UV light, and another is to keep “moving forward.” When depressed, the mind shuts down and tricks itself into not wanting to proceed with anything. To get out of it, doing something physically productive can, in essence, force movement. 

Another emotional speculation arises about the connections between heat and temper, more notably aggression.  

Amongst the few experiments, one took place in a classroom setting where the temperature was changed. Half of the subjects were introduced to stimuli in an environment that was comfortably cool while the other half were exposed to stimuli in uncomfortable warmth.  

It was anticipated that, up to modest levels, individuals’ hostility toward a victim would rise as the degree of the experimental settings rose. These predictions were confirmed by an association between aggression, heat and negative affect.  

As for whether the heat itself causes a physiological change, that much remains uncertain. Perhaps people’s aggression exists only because discomfort leads to shortened patience, along with social factors. 

“The temperature-aggression hypothesis is less popular in the social sciences, which treat 

human violence as a result of manifold environmental determinants, such as poverty, 

urban densities, economic inequality, racial conflicts, and other variables, including 

Climate,” said Damm in her notes. 

What about urban environments that have less access to natural weather conditions? As far as educated guesses go, they’ve shown that contrary to the belief that being in a “concrete jungle” affects the body’s ability to function properly, it’s not necessarily true.  

In tropical tribes, such as an Amazonian tribe, their depth perception is different than someone who lives in a city. Someone living in Manhattan can distinguish depth based on sharp lines and boxes, whereas the tribal people see perception differently based on their bush and tree-filled environment.  

“That [tribal research] makes me think that there’s some adaptation that may happen when you’re in an environment that isn’t exposed to the same kinds of visual or sensory triggers,” said Damm. “So while we have the knee-jerk response to think, ‘Oh, poor city folk who don’t have exposure to the weather,’ they may have an adapted system for that, that allows them to kind of still get what they need without having wind in their face.” 

One of the more recent psychological studies about weather and mood features the connection between investments and weather. Good weather, for example, increases investments, whereas bad weather lowers them. 

Even though some people report feeling upset with certain weather conditions, others enjoy those weather conditions, such as clouds or rain. Social scientists talk about the saying “misery loves miserable company,” which may very well be why some people enjoy rain versus sunshine.  

“It could be that weather preferences also reflect our dominant mood state,” said Damm. “If I’m kind of a person who just likes to be a deep, dark thinker and morose and not … ‘yay, embrace the day,’ that weather reflects my mood a little better, so I have a preference for it. It’s one possibility.”

On the other hand, deliberate exposure to different weather and temperature conditions may be beneficial to the body. Experiencing something different can stimulate neurons that haven’t been stimulated in a while, sort of like “exercising a muscle you haven’t done,” according to Damm.  

Undoubtedly, UV light affects mood and health, but aside from that, it’s difficult to prove the weather itself has any scientific effect due to a lack of research on the subject.  

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