Air Conditioning War: Why Do Men and Women Fight So Much?

Ah, the air-conditioning wars ... If you work in a place where you share space with multiple people, then chances are you have seen more than one fight over the temperature of the room. By the way, if you pay attention, most of the time, it's the lady who mumbles as she puts on blouses and rubs her cold hands while the boys roam around the office dying of heat.

But why, after all, do men and women fall out so much over air conditioning? Alice Smellie of The Telegraph portal (which faces the same battle regularly) decided to investigate, and consulted several people - including experts and supporters of the cause - about the possible reasons for the battle.

Knock and hit

One such person was Colin Crosby, a consultant who specializes in sports medicine, who told Smellie that warm-blooded animals with reduced body size lose heat faster. He explained that a mouse's body will cool much faster than an elephant's, for example, as it has a small skin surface with respect to heat-producing parts of the body, such as the muscles and the heart.

Comparatively, women's bodies can be up to 15% smaller than men's, but don't think that for humans it is as simple as mice and elephants. According to Crosby, although women are smaller, they have about 10% more body fat than men, so they would be better prepared to face cooler temperatures.

Theoretically . After all, men's bodies tend to be more muscular than women, and the muscles, in addition to generating heat, also function as a kind of “thermal insulator”.

Pseudoanthropological Arguments

Another person consulted by Smellie was psychologist Marisa Peer, who explained that among our prehistoric ancestors - those who lived in caves! - it was the men who went out to hunt. They were exposed to the elements and could die at any moment, so they learned to value the objects of their hunts rather than feelings of comfort.

That is why, according to Peer, men place more value on material things like cars or luxury watches these days - and thermal sensations, because they are not tangible, simply matter less. Is this really one more reason why they feel less cold?

And the war goes on

According to Smellie, a study found that women are nine times more likely than men to suffer from cold hands and feet, and according to Lisa Flam of Today Health, biology seems to support that conclusion. That's because women tend to accumulate more blood near their organs, and their fingertips sometimes get up to three degrees cooler than the rest of the body. The same is not true of men.

Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz explained in a Los Angeles Times article that there are several reasons that affect how people tolerate cold and heat, such as diet, circadian rhythm and genetics, and basal metabolism, since when he It is slower, people tend to feel colder. Not to mention that even individuals with the same body temperature can also perceive heat and cold in different ways.

Thus, everything seems to indicate that it is not always a matter of simple stubbornness - nor of seeing who will win the war by controlling air conditioning. Finding a balance between those who die from heat and those who freeze in the office is not an easy task, but according to experts, the ideal (and comfortable for most) average temperature is a pleasant 22 ° C. So guys, stop fighting and set the thermostat!