You're Not The Only One Who's Moody AF In The Summer Heat, According To Science

If you're feeling unreasonably moody, uncomfortable, and downright miserable, chances are, it's too damn hot outside.

There's a reason why, on the hottest of summer days, you feel like you're at your absolute highest point of lethargy.

On days like this, the only thing even remotely appealing to you is to lay sprawled out on your bed, nude, with the air conditioning on full blast.

According to a new study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it's actually scientifically OK to blame everything you feel on the heat, because temperature, emotions, and behavior are all related to one another.

Liuba Belkin, an associate professor at Lehigh University, told Quartz that "people help less in an uncomfortable environment, whatever the reason they come up with to justify why they cannot do [certain things]."

The Study Analyzed Differences In Behavior Under Both Hot And Normal Temperatures

The data showed that those working in particularly hot temperatures were 50 percent less likely to engage in helpful behaviors, such as volunteering, listening actively, and making suggestions -- which kind of makes sense when you think about it.

I think we've all been at this point, where we're simply too uncomfortable to think even a single thought.

In the second part of the study, paid participants were then asked to simply recall a time when they were hot, and to fill out a survey.

After their feelings were recorded, they were then asked to fill out another survey, for free.

According to the findings, participants who recalled a time when they were hot appeared more fatigued, which decreased their prosocial behavior.

Only 34 percent of the participants were willing to help with the free survey, compared to 76 percent of participants in the control group.

Not Only Did Helpfulness Decrease, But Negative Affectivity Also Increased

Again, this makes a lot of sense. It's too hot. Don't ask me for sh*t; just let me breathe.

The research also demonstrated that emotions are so influenced by the environment, that even the slightest of change in temperature can cause fluctuations in behavior.

In one part of the study, college students were separated into two rooms. One room was uncomfortably warm, while the other room was 15 percent less warm. The students in each room were then asked to answer a series of questions.

Sixty-four percent of the people in the hotter room agreed to answer at least one question. In the cooler room, 95 percent complied with the task.

In the hotter room, of the 64 percent that did answer, their help was minimal, answering, on average, only six questions, almost six times less than the number of questions answered in the in cooler room.

Belkin noted that, for whatever reason, the heat “affected their perceptions, emotions, and behavior."

So the next time someone asks you to do something and you really just cannot even, tell them it's not your fault.

Blame it on science.