The fact that women generally prefer higher indoor temperatures than men is well supported by survey evidence [1–4]. This difference in preferences, sometimes referred to as the “battle of the thermostat,” is passionately discussed in popular culture and has received considerable media attention [5–7]. Surprisingly then, the research examining the impact of temperature on cognitive performance [8] has not explored a link between gender and temperature response.

To address this gap we ran a large laboratory experiment in which over 500 individuals were asked to perform a set of cognitive tasks (math, verbal and cognitive reflection), subject to experimentally manipulated indoor temperatures. We find that, for math and verbal tasks, consistent with their subjective temperature preferences, women perform better both on the extensive and intensive margins at high temperatures than at low temperatures (i.e., women both attempt to solve, and correctly solve more math and verbal tasks at higher vs. lower temperatures). Men display the opposite pattern, performing better at lower temperatures. In contrast to math and verbal tasks, temperature has no impact on cognitive reflection test performance for either gender.

Overall, our results suggest that gender is an important factor not only in determining the impact of temperature on comfort but also on productivity and cognitive performance. Additionally, given the lack of attention to gender in mediating the impact of temperature on performance, our results may explain in part the inconsistent results of previous studies on the relationship between temperature and cognitive performance [9–11].

To study the effect of temperature on performance, we conducted a laboratory experiment with 543 students in Berlin, Germany (see Materials and Methods and Supporting Information (SI) for instructions and details on procedure). We used a between subject design by varying the temperature from 16.19 to 32.57°C between sessions. In each session, participants were given the same set of tasks which were monetarily incentivized based on performance. These tasks were:

We use ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions to map the relationship between temperature and performance. Our basic linear regression is given by the following equation: Yij=α+βTempj+Xijγ+ϵij (1) where i references an individual, j references an experimental session, Temp_j is the temperature in the room during session j, and X_ij is a vector of the observable characteristics of the individual and session that might influence performance. The dependent variable Y_ij is a measure of individual i’s performance on the math task, verbal task, CRT, and a measure of the total number of answers attempted (since all subjects attempted to answer all three CRT questions, this is a normalized, equally weighted measure of the number of math questions attempted and the number of words submitted).

An alternative estimation strategy involves a non-linear identification of the temperature-performance relationship. Specifically, we replace Temp_j with a vector of temperature dummies corresponding to the following temperature bins: less than 20, 20–25, 25–30, and more than 30 degrees Celsius.

Finally, to estimate the role gender plays in the relationship between temperature and performance, we interact our linear and non-linear measures of temperature with a male dummy.

Taken together, these results show that within a temperature range of 16 and 33 degrees Celsius, females generally exhibit better cognitive performance at the warmer end of the temperature distribution while men do better at colder temperatures. The increase in female cognitive performance appears to be driven largely by an increase in the number of submitted answers. We interpret this as evidence that the increased performance is driven in part by an increase in effort. Similarly, the decrease in male cognitive performance is partially driven by a decrease in observable effort. Importantly, the increase in female cognitive performance is larger and more precisely estimated than the decrease in male performance.

That these results were completely masked when differential-by-gender effects were not taken into account could be one possible explanation for the inconsistent results found in the prior literature on temperature and cognitive performance. At the very least, it suggests that future studies on the effect of temperature should examine potential heterogeneous effects across gender.

Interestingly, we find no effect of temperature on CRT scores overall, or by gender. Given the relationship between cognitive reflection and violent crime [17] and the well-documented relationship between temperature and violence [18–20], this result was surprising. One potential, albeit purely speculative, explanation is that the more behavioral effects of temperature, such as effects on reflection or aggression, manifest at longer time horizons than a one-hour experimental session. Another is that the effect of temperature on violent tendencies operates through a channel unrelated to cognitive reflection.

Our results contribute to the growing experimental economics and psychology literature on gender differences. Recent experimental evidence suggests that women are less competitive [21, 22], more risk-averse [23, 24] and more honest [25, 26] than men. There is also some evidence showing that women are more altruistic [27, 28], more cooperative [29] and more emotive in moral dilemma judgments [30] than men.

Methodologically, our results call for some caution for laboratory experiments in psychology, economics and other social sciences with respect to gender composition in experimental sessions. Since we show that ordinary variations in room temperature can affect cognitive performance significantly and differently for men and women, experimental social scientists should take this into account when both designing experiments and interpreting the results.

Ultimately, our results potentially raise the stakes for the battle of the thermostat, suggesting that it is not just about comfort, but also about cognitive performance and productivity. Given the relative effect sizes, our results suggest that in gender-balanced workplaces, temperatures should be set significantly higher than current standards.

This study was conducted with an IRB approval from University of Southern California and with an approval of an ethics committee at WZB Berlin Social Science Center. We recruited students in Berlin, Germany via the online recruiting system for economic experiments ORSEE [31]. The participants were randomly selected from the subject pool in ORSEE and none of them participated in more than one session. We excluded participants who have previously participated in ten or more experiments in this laboratory.

Overall, 543 students participated in our experiment. One participant did not complete the post-questionnaire and due to missing demographics we exclude this participant of our analyses. Including the participant does not change the quantitative results. Out of the remaining 542 participants, 41.14% were female. Table 3 summarizes the demographics of our sample. Our sample consisted exclusively out of students from universities in Berlin. The advantages of this subject pool is that they are relatively easy to recruit and homogenous in their cognitive skills. The disadvantage of this subject pool is that it is not representative of the whole population with respect to age and education level.

We conducted the experiment at the experimental economics laboratory at Technical University Berlin. The sessions took place from 25^th of September until 6^th of December 2017. In total, we conducted 24 sessions with 23–25 participants a session, depending on the show-up rates.

After arrival in the laboratory and before entering the main laboratory room where the experiment takes place, participants picked a random number with a seat assignment and were informed by the experimenter that this experiment includes temperature variations. The participants were also told that if they do not want to stay in the experiment, they can leave right now or at any time during the experimental session and that they will be paid a show-up fee in this case. Note that we did not obtain informed consent of the participants, since the need for consent was waived by the ethics committee. After entering the laboratory room and taking their seat, the experimenter informed the participants about general rules of the laboratory and handed out instructions. Participants were told that there are several parts of the experiment and that they will be informed about the content of the next task only when the current task is finished. The tasks were, in order: a cognitive reflection test, an adding up numbers task, and a words building task (see SI for instructions of the experiment with exact descriptions of the tasks). After completing the tasks, participants were asked to fill in a post-questionnaire including demographic questions and questions regarding the motives behind the decisions in the experiment. Then the experimenters collected instructions with participants’ answers, checked the responses for correctness and calculated payoffs. At the end, participants privately received their payoffs in cash and left the laboratory. On average, an experimental session lasted one hour.

In all experimental sessions, participants worked on the same tasks. However, the temperature of the laboratory differed between the sessions. The average temperature in a session ranged between 16.19 and 32.57 Celsius, which we varied using AC and electronic heaters. The participants were told before entering the laboratory that the experiment is about temperature and that they are allowed to leave the laboratory at any time. No participant left the laboratory before or during the session. Table 4 displays temperature variations in the experiment.