“LOVE THERMO #WarmUpWithLove” – Testing the Warmth of Love on the Coldest Day of the Year

Rarely do Japanese families verbally express their love for one another. Panasonic conducted an experiment to see how people’s body temperature changes when love is verbally expressed. The experiment showed that the temperature (surface temperature around mainly the tip of the nose and peripheral area) of people who were told that they are loved rose by 0.8℃.

*Please watch the video with English subtitles by clicking captions icon.

Tokyo, Japan – Rarely do Japanese families verbally express their love for one another. Panasonic conducted an experiment to see how people’s body temperature changes when love is verbally expressed. The experiment showed that the temperature (surface temperature around mainly the tip of the nose and peripheral area) of people who were told that they are loved rose by 0.8℃.

Panasonic Corporation released the video, “LOVE THERMO #WarmUpWithLove,” which features air conditioners from its “Fudan Premium (daily premium)” series and also captures a real experiment about love on the coldest day of the season, January 21, 2016.

Panasonic’s “Fudan Premium (daily premium)” series proposes that home appliances should play a new role in “loving your family more, making your lives even more special.” And in line with this, Panasonic conducted a unique experiment to see what kind of change words of love bring about. The video captures the importance of expressing love and the real expressions of and the love between the 6 groups of families. Please take a look.

It is said that compared to people in other countries, Japanese people do not verbally express their love or gratitude as often. The study Panasonic conducted for this experiment found that 84.7%* of people surveyed have never told their family members that they “love” them. This video, “LOVE THERMO #WarmUpWithLove,” captures the experiment we conducted to see how “love makes up feel warm inside,” how people’s body temperature changes with words of love. This demonstrative experiment measured the change in people’s body temperature before and after they heard words of love and appreciation.
*According to Panasonic’s survey conducted in January 2016.

Six groups of families took part in this experiment. One member from each family was working with us, but the other family members (subjects) were only told that they were going to take part in an interview. Halfway through the interview, the member of the family who was in on the secret surprised the other member of the family by reading a letter expressing their love and appreciation and giving them a present. During this process, a high-performance thermopile infrared sensor measured changes in body temperatures of both family members. The results found that the body temperatures of the subjects who heard words of love and appreciation rose by 0.8℃ on average.

Specialist’s comment regarding the experiment

Professor Fumiko Takao from the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Faculty of Clinical Nutrition at Hiroshima International University, who studies the relationship between the heart/mind and body temperature, said, “This was a meaningful experiment that has shown how words of love activates the parasympathetic nerves and causes the body temperature to rise.”

“Our autonomic nervous system has 2 branches that it balances: The sympathetic nervous system, which is active when our brain is excited and the parasympathetic nervous system, which kicks in when the brain is relaxed. When we feel nervous, the sympathetic nervous system becomes active, causing our muscles as well as the capillary blood vessels in our extremities to contract. This in return causes our blood circulation to worsen and the temperature in our extremities to drop. On the other hand, when the body is relaxed, the parasympathetic nervous system becomes active, the capillary vessels expand, circulation improves, and the temperature in our extremities rises. When we spend time with people we are close with, or are relaxing listening to some music, our parasympathetic nervous system is activated, blood circulates throughout our bodies collecting waste, enhancing our metabolism, and helps our bodies rejuvenate. Panasonic’s video shows how people’s body temperature rose when they were told they are loved. As I mentioned, people’s body temperature rises when they feel relaxed and their parasympathetic nervous system becomes active. Likewise, this experiment has shown that when people feel loved and appreciated, both their brain and body relaxes, and becomes healthier. So it’s a very interesting experiment. The 20th century was analytically driven, left-brain led. But this century, people will focus more on emotions and our 5 senses. Even with respect to health, we’ve entered an era where a more emotional approach should be taken, where by communicating our love in a way that is emotionally stirring, we give positive impact to other people’s mind and body. Surveys have shown that 60% of people wish to ‘better express their love,’ and this, too, is indicative of the changing times.”

While listening to their family member express their love and appreciation, the subjects’ expressions changed from surprise, to tears, to smiles. So this video even warms the hearts of the viewers. Please take a look at this unique experiment, which has proven that “words of love not only warm our hearts, but also our bodies.”

Overview of the experiment

*Measurement method: We used a thermopile infrared sensor (provided by SSC Co., Ltd.) to measure surface body temperature, and an equipment capable of measuring the surface body temperature by splitting the image into 5000 pixels every 1/100 seconds, and with supervision provided by an SSC researcher.

* Analysis method: In accordance with the advice provided by the Japanese Society of Thermology (Kagawa prefecture), we measured the surface temperature of the tip of the nose and peripheral area as it is an uncovered area and is said to be most affected by emotion. The surface body temperature of the subject during the first 20 minutes was considered the normal body temperature, and the surface temperature when the letters were read was used as the “body temperature when being told that they are loved.”