Moviegoers tend to choose romantic films over other genres when the temperatures are low, a new study has suggested. In their study, the authors examined the association between romance and warmth in the context of movie preference.

"We often think of love as being warm. This link between love and warmth appears in everyday language, songs, and poems," wrote authors Jiewen Hong (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and Yacheng Sun (University of Colorado, Boulder).

"But is the connection between romantic love and warmth just a metaphor or is there indeed a direct link between romance and physical warmth?" The research involved four laboratory studies and an analysis of data from an online movie rental company. In their studies, the authors tested a prediction that romance