Saint Paul Pioneer Press
July 14, 2006 Friday
LOCAL; Pg. 1B
Hot temps bring the bad out
RUBÉN ROSARIO
Even Shakespeare understood the tempest that percolates inside mere mortals
when the mercury rises to an extreme.
"The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,'' the English playwright wrote in "Romeo
and Juliet." "And, if we meet, we shall not 'scape a brawl. For now, these hot
days, is the mad blood stirring.''
Right on, Willie. Literature and everyday language underscores the assumed
connection between heat and aggression or irritability: We get hot under the
collar. Tempers flare. Emotions boil over. We are caught in the heat of the
moment.
Turns out it's true. Bad stuff can happen during a heat wave, like the one turning
the Twin Cities into a sauna for the next few days. We do lose our cool, pun
intended. Baseball batters get plunked more often. Riots usually break out during
these steamy days. And crime most definitely takes an upturn.
"There's no question about it,'' says Craig Anderson, a psychology professor
at Iowa State University and a noted scholar on the subject. "We get more
uncomfortable as the temperature rises. We become more irritable and minor
events, a bump on the street, slight of some sort [#x2014] becomes a major
provocation that can provoke us to respond in a more aggressive fashion.''
Research in recent years and decades has undoubtedly confirmed and detailed
what we have suspected for thousands of years: Heat has an effect on criminal
and violent behavior. Anderson understands that people still question the link.
"You may ask 20 police chiefs, and 10 will tell you that they've know this all along
and why do we need to study it,'' Anderson said. "The other 10 will tell you it's the
most ridiculous thing they've heard.''
Minneapolis Capt. Rich Stanek, a 23-year police veteran, is a believer.
"Most definitely yes, yes, yes and yes,'' he said of the link between hot weather
and crime surges. "It's a given. The crime rates will prove that.''
One major study conducted in the 1990s cross-referenced years of FBI-collected
national crime stats with weather data. The researchers found that crime
generally peaks during the summer, particularly in August, and wanes during the
winter, roughly around February.
Other studies found that major U.S. cities with hotter weather have higher violentcrime levels than cities of similar populations located in cooler climates. This was
proven true even after the researchers took into account and factored in cultural
and socio-economic influences, such as poverty.
With assistance from other researchers, Anderson poured through 48 years'
worth of crime and weather stats in the U.S., as well as stats from other legions
of the world.
Among his findings: The highest murder rates have typically occurred during the
hottest summer months on record during that span.
In the 2001 study, Anderson estimated the overall violent crime rate for murders
and assaults in the U.S. [#x2014] about 400 per 100,000 residents annually
[#x2014] could mean nearly 4.6 more victims per 100,000 residents with each
degree spike in global temperature. Given that the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change predicts temps will increase between two to eight degrees by
the middle of the 21st century, we also could face unprecedented spikes in
crimes.
Other acclaimed studies have found strong links between rising temperatures
and higher rates of rapes and cases of domestic violence. Most of the world's
major street riots have occurred in late spring and summer months. One English
study noted that motorists tended to sit on their horns longer at intersections or
traffic stops.
A 1991 study found that pitchers bean Major League batters more often during
hot game days than cooler ones.
Other researchers successfully duplicated the phenomenon in lab tests. Among
the most well-known studies is one Ehor Boyanowsky, professor of criminology
at Canada's Simon Fraser University, conducted a few years ago. Boyanowsky
found a direct link between extreme temperatures and the release of chemicals
in the brain that heighten adrenaline and aggression.
In Boyanowsky's experiment, volunteers could administer small electrical shocks
to a tester who was lobbing insults at them. Boyanowsky then cranked up the
heat in the room and found that as the temperature rose, so did the volunteers'
willingness to zap their tormentor. In fact, in extreme heat, volunteers repeatedly
shocked the tester even after he switched from insults to compliments.
Boyanowsky, ever the Canadian, has found a link between fights at hockey
games and the heat generated by the helmets players wear. He has advocated
for air-conditioned helmets to help cut down on hockey violence.
A surprise side effect of his landmark test was that the shocks also increased
when the climate was artificially manipulated to extreme cold temperatures.
Anderson acknowledges that studies have shown that people also are made
similarly uncomfortable by extreme cold. The major difference however, is
adaptability.
"The leading theory is that people are better able to adapt or deal with the cold,''
Anderson noted, adding that in general, people have more access to heat than
air conditioning during extreme climate.
"We can go inside, put layers of clothing on to make us feel more comfortable,''
Anderson said. "There's also a tendency to recognize that the cold can kill. The
survival instinct takes over, and that tends to occupy our thoughts rather than
lash out.''
So most hardy Minnesotans should know by now, there are just two words to
deal with what's coming: Chill out.