Researchers at St Andrews University (UK) have shown that non-sexual social interactions between men and women cause the temperature of women's faces to rise considerably. To reach this conclusion, the scientists used thermal imaging to record the skin temperature on the arms, palms, face and chest of the interlocutors. And they detected that in the interactions between both sexes there was a physiological response to social contact much more intense than they imagined , since the facial temperature in women increased by one degree centigrade, despite the fact that there was no feeling of blushing on the part of participants. However, similar interactions between two women did not produce any change in temperature, according to the authors in the latest issue of the journal Biology Letters .
The researchers will now try to determine if this physiological response is detected by others and if it affects social interactions in any way. "We are exploring the relationship between variations in skin temperature and skin color, which should be slightly redder as blood flow increases," explains Carmen Lefevre, co-author of the study, who suspects that these changes could be detected unconsciously in conversation and affect the perception of physical attractiveness , thus fulfilling a biological function.
