Extreme temperatures lead to online flaming

A new study has shown that temperatures outside a window of 12–21°C are linked to a marked rise in aggressive online behaviour.

Conducted by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the study looked at more than four billion Twitter posts from US users between 2014–2020. Researchers used an AI algorithm to detect more than 75 million hate tweets within the sample, before connecting them with weather data.

Researchers concluded that people tend to show more aggressive online behaviour when it’s either too cold or too hot outside, with online hate increasing up to 12 per cent for colder temperatures and up to 22 per cent for hotter temperatures across the USA.

The study points to a limit in the human ability to adapt to extreme temperatures and highlights a potentially unforeseen societal impact of climate change – and another important aspect of comfort heating and cooling.

Read the full article here.

Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash.