Find out how the temperature should be set for mixed-gender offices.
Video credit: ABC7
A study found that the capacity of women’s thinking is better at high temperatures, while men work better when it is colder.
When women were asked to do mental arithmetic, they got 9 per cent more right in 5C (9F) temperature. While men solved 3 per cent fewer tasks only in 5C temperature.
When male colleagues are sweating, women often feel cold in offices.
The study’s lead author, Tom Chang, associate professor of finance and business economics at the University of Southern California, said: “It’s been documented that women like warmer indoor temperatures than men, but the idea until now has been that it’s a matter of personal preference,”
‘’What we found is it’s not just whether you feel comfortable or not, but that your performance is affected by temperature.’’
According to the study published in the journal PLOS One, ‘’For every ten words, women were able to get in this task, they would guess an additional word with every 10C rise in temperature. But men would get just over half a word less.’’
They asked more than 500 participants to do 50 sums, adding two-digit numbers together in five minutes. In a five-minute work, participants made more than ten letters.
Sarah Johnson, the public relations director at FitSmallBusiness.com digital business magazine, told MarketWatch: “One of our co-founders will come in and set the thermostat down to 70 degrees, which to me is too cold,” said Johnson, 50. “So as soon as he leaves the room, I’ll tiptoe over to the thermostat … and I’ll put it right back on up to 77. And then he comes back and turns the temperature back down. And the game just keeps on going.”
According to experts, when people are not distracted by the atmosphere like it is not too cold or too warm and then they make more efforts.
Professor Chang said: ‘’One of the most surprising things we learned is this isn’t about the extremes of temperature. Even if you go from 60 to 75F (15.5 to 24C), which is a relatively normal temperature range, you still see a meaningful variation in performance.’’
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