Are women really more
sensitive to cold? Here’s what
the science says.
Do you tend to run hot or are you always freezing? Here’s what
science says about why—and what it means for your health and
productivity.
Even as the temperatures outside continue their upward climb,
many office workers are stocking up on sweaters and blankets.
Overly air-conditioned workplaces mean that many workers—
disproportionately women—find that the summer heat has yielded
to what some dub “women’s winter.”
Instead of shorts and sandals, the excessive cold indoors means
space heaters and fuzzy socks. While the phenomenon has yielded
an endless array of amusing TikTok videos, the subject is no joke.
“If people aren’t comfortable, they’re not going to perform as well
as they could,” says Thomas Chang, a business economist at the
University of Southern California. “It sounds obvious to the point of
being stupid, but that’s what we find.”
(Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently)
Work by Chang and others showed that women tend to report being
the most comfortable at a warmer temperature than the average
man. And it’s not just offices, either. Whether outside or in, at home
or work, studies have shown that women are more sensitive to cold.
(The average human body temperature is cooler than you think.)
Some of that, Chang says, may be due to differences in clothing.
Having to wear a three-piece suit with necktie will leave a person
warmer than if they wore a sundress and sandals. But the other
reason is that women, on average, burn fewer calories at rest than
men, which creates less internal heat.
But it might not be quite so simple. A study from April 2024 in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that a
person’s body size and composition was more important than
gender in determining when they started to feel chilly. Here’s what
science really says about people who are sensitive to cold—and how
it might affect their health and productivity.
How your metabolic rate sets your
body temperature
Like other warm-blooded animals, humans invest a lot of energy and
effort into maintaining their body temperatures at an appropriately
toasty level. Plenty of species change their behavior to adapt to
thermal extremes, such as becoming nocturnal to cope with desert
heat or evolving a thick layer of fur to survive frigid winters.
But just as humans vary in height and body shape, we also vary in
our determination of an ideal temperature. Some people are
comfortable wearing shorts and sandals even in winter, whereas
others of us are invariably cold without a hat and sweater. Our
preferences for external temperatures are directly related to how
hot our metabolic fire burns.
People with more muscle mass and larger bodies tend to burn more
calories at rest than smaller individuals. And while fat is insulating—
just ask the seals and polar bears in the Arctic—it can also prevent
the heat generated at our cores from reaching the hands and feet.
(Here's what lifting weights does to your body—and your mind.)
As a result, temperature preferences can be somewhat gendered,
says Boris Kingma, human thermal performance scientist at the
Dutch Institute of Applied Technology. But he cautions that it’s not
as simple as “women prefer warmer temperatures.”
For one, he points out the huge overlap in ideal temperatures
between men and women. What differences exist are fairly subtle,
says Kingma. For another, our preferred temperature varies
depending on our activity level and our clothing. To Kingma, the
gendering of these variables makes a bigger difference than
metabolism.
Data from the recent PNAS study supports these findings. A team of
scientists from the National Institutes of Heath found that what
mattered most in determining a person’s ideal temperature was the
interaction between metabolic rate, body surface area, and body fat
percentage.
“If you have a similar metabolic rate, it doesn’t matter whether
you’re a man, woman, elderly, whatever. You’ll prefer the same
environment,” Kingma says.
How temperature affects your body
Chang’s interest in the relationship between temperature and
worker productivity began when he began working in an office that
was overly hot. He made as many switches as he could—opting for
short sleeves instead of long, iced coffee over hot—but nothing
changed the fact that he was often too hot to focus on his work. All
Chang could think about in the office were ways to cool down.
This isn’t surprising, says Kingma, since having to generate or
dissipate excess body heat is physically stressful. When you get too
warm, blood vessels in the extremities dilate to allow the body to
release more heat. If that isn’t enough, you start sweating.
Meanwhile exposure to the cold makes the blood vessels in your
hands and feet contract to prevent heat loss. If body temperature
drops too low, shivering can help generate needed heat. Both
extremes require extra energy output, Kingma says.
(This is what a cold plunge does to your body.)
While hypothermia and frostbite are examples of excessive cold
exposure, conditions like Raynaud’s disease have an impact at less
extreme temperatures. Raynaud’s occurs when small blood vessels
in the fingers and toes spasm shut, giving the extremities a white or
blue tinge. It disproportionately affects women and those living in
cold climates and is thought to be an extreme form of cold
sensitivity. The condition is reversable upon warming but can be
uncomfortable and annoying.
Over time, humans have developed a range of measures to adapt to
some of the most extreme climates on the planet. From basic
strategies such as fire and animal furs for warmth, to high-tech
options like insulating fabrics that can reflect body heat and battery
powered warming jackets, these options let humans live almost
anywhere.
“The sole reason that humans were able to populate the globe was
our ability to adapt to the environment with technology,” Kingma
says. And that technology includes more than air conditioning, he
points out.
Many of these technologies aren’t meant to keep humans at the
“perfect” temperature but rather ensure that they don’t get
dangerously hot or cold.
How temperature affects your
productivity
Chang wanted to know how much the stress from being too hot or
too cold affects productivity. Teaming up with Agne Kajackaite of
WZB Berlin Social Science Center in Germany, they tested a group
of German university students to determine how their ability to work
shifted when they were too hot or too cold.
They found that female students performed better on verbal and
math tasks at warmer temperatures, but males did better when it
was cooler. The difference was significant, if seemingly subtle—just
a few percentage points. It might not sound like much on the
surface, but many managers would love to boost worker productivity
by such an amount, Chang says.
“All you have to do is make sure your workers are comfortable. It
seems like a no-brainer,” he says.
Stefano Schiavon, an architect and environmental engineer at the
University of California, Berkeley, isn’t convinced. Schiavon
conducted a meta-analysis of studies looking at the relationship
between productivity and temperature, compiling data from 35
separate studies, including Chang’s. When he looked at the data
collectively, he found that it was only at temperature extremes that
output significantly suffered. Someone might be a little hot or a little
cold, but that’s not really impacting how well they perform,
Schiavon says.
(How to cope with stress at work—and avoid burning out.)
But ultimately the solution to women’s winter seems to be
straightforward: just turn down the air conditioning. It’s a cost- and
energy-saving move that is increasingly important as the burning of
fossil fuels warms the planet, says Schiavon. Adjusting indoor
cooling and allowing workers to customize their wardrobe and
workspace to enable them to work at their optimum temperature
would go a long way to solving both problems, he says.
“We are using a lot of expensive energy to make people miserable,”
Schiavon says.
