The Johns Hopkins School of Education Review
REVIEW OF THE The Johns Hopkins School of Education
Connecting the Dots Between Physical & Interpersonal Warmth What does it mean to perceive a person as warm versus cold? Think for a moment about your use of these terms in your own daily language and communication with others. According to research in social cognition, interpersonal warmth refers to traits that are related to perceived favorability of the other person’s intentions toward us. These often include friendliness, trustworthiness, and helpfulness. In making social judgments, warmth is a powerful personality trait. Warm and cold as personality traits are often used in our first impressions of people, revealing our interpersonal liking of others and reflecting the concept of social perception. In making an initial impression of someone, we will often make statements such as “He seemed rather cold and distant” or conversely “He seemed friendly and warm.” Such assertions reflect the negative (cold) and positive (warm) connotations we often associate with these two words. ...
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