People feel physically colder in a room if they are told that requesting more heat will cost them money.
Financial costs actively modulate the human perception of temperature and physical comfort. The sensation of being too cold is not just a biological reading of the skin, but is filtered through the brain's economic expectations. Participants in a study reported higher discomfort at the same temperature when a fee was attached to the thermostat. This suggests that poverty or financial stress can literally make a person's physical environment feel more hostile. It proves that our internal senses are deeply connected to our bank accounts.
Economic signals and thermal comfort in decreasing indoor temperature
SSRN · 6725487
The recent European energy crisis emphasized how raised energy prices increased energy awareness, prompting changes in human-building interactions and government directives. This resulted in a 20.1% reduction in natural gas consumption in European countries during the winter of 2022. To partially explain the underlying mechanisms, the links between occupant behaviour, indoor environment perception, and awareness of economic signals should be better understood, as they remain underexplored. The p