Why rising temperatures are bad for our mental health

By Gillian Tett

A couple of years ago Solomon Hsiang, assistant professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley, became fascinated by an important issue: what effect does heat have on our brains – and emotions? It is a pertinent question right now, given that temperatures have soared this summer across most of Europe and the US – currently, some 70 million Americans are still under some level of “heat advisory” notice.
Some readers will have welcomed the warmer weather. If you live in Scotland or Sweden, where you don’t often get the chance to spend time on the beach in August, summer sunshine has historically been associated with joy. Conversely, if you live in a city with minimal air conditioning (London, for example) or in one of those sweltering US states, a sharp rise in temperature is greeted with horror.