10.2190/YG2Q-PNP3-5K30-M145 YG2QPNP35K30M145 6 Toward a Thermoregulatory Model of Violence 81 87 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 YG2QPNP35K30M145.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=YG2QPNP35K30M145 1 Ehor O. Boyanowsky Jocelyn Calvert James Young Linda Brideau Department of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Open Learning Institute, Richmond, B.C. Abbey Lane Hospital, Halifax, N.S. University of Wisconsin The effects of climate on violent crime have long been noted in the criminological literature, but the data have been at best equivocal. To determine the direct effects of environmental temperature on emotion, physiological arousal and aggression, a series of studies was conducted. Subjects instigated to aggress against an insulting evaluator displayed an affective pattern of heightened aggression under conditions of uncomfortable heat, and an instrumental pattern under conditions of uncomfortable cold. These findings suggest intraindividual mechanisms and conditions that could account for the correlational findings mentioned: heightened temperature may lower an individual's threshold for aggression under conditions of interpersonal provocation. In addition, tympanic temperature monitoring changes at the anterior hypothalamus may be a useful index of instigation to aggression. B. de Quiros, <i>Modern Theories of Criminality</i>, Little, Brown and Co., 1911. C. Lombroso, <i>Crime: Its Causes and Remedies</i>, H. P. Horton (trans.), Patterson Smith, Montclair, New Jersey, 1912, reprinted 1968. Guerry, Ferri, and Ashaffenburg, cited in J. Cohen, The Geography of Crime, <i>Annals of the American Academy of Political Social Science, 217</i>, pp. 29-37, 1941. E. G. Dexter, <i>Weather Influences</i>, Macmillan, New York, 1904. W. D. Morrison, <i>Crime and Its Causes</i>, London, 1891. J. Cohen, The Geography of Crime, <i>Annals of the American Academy of Political Social Science, 217</i>, pp. 29-37, 1941. M. C. Brearley, <i>Homicide in the United States</i>, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1932. R. E. Goranson and D. King, Rioting and Daily Temperature: Analysis of the U. S. Riots in 1967, Unpublished manuscript, York University, 1970. J. J. Alford and L. T. Lewis, The Influence of Weather on Forcible Rape Rates, Unpublished manuscript, Western Illinois University, 1975. L. Berkowitz, The Contagion of Violence: An S-R Mediational Analysis of Some Effects of Observed Aggression, W. J. Arnold and M. M. Page (eds.), <i>Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1970</i>, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp. 95-135, 1971. L. Berkowitz, Aggressive Cues in Aggressive Behavior and Hostility Catharsis, <i>Psychological Review, 71</i>, pp. 104-122, 1964. R. Green and D. Stonner, An Extended Apparatus for Measuring Aggression in Humans, <i>Behavioral Research Methods and Instrumentation, 3</i>, pp. 197-198, 1971. S. Schachter and J. E. Singer, Cognitive, Social and Psychological Determinants of Emotional State, <i>Psychological Reviews, 69</i>, pp. 379-399, 1962. T. H. Benzinger, Heat Regulation: Homeostasis of Central Temperature in Man, <i>Physiological Reviews, 49</i>, pp. 671-759, 1969. R. O. Rawson and H. T. Hammel, Hypothalamic and Tympanic Membrane Temperatures in Rhesus Monkey, <i>Federation Proceedings, 22</i>, p. 283, 1963. T. H. Benzinger, Peripheral Cold- and Central Warm-Reception, Main Origins of Human Thermal Discomfort, <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 49</i>, pp. 832-839, 1963.