Loneliness and the Bath

Now that you’ve gotten rid of your two best friends, pillows and cocaine, what’s left? Nothing, only hot water.

The greater the feeling of loneliness, the more baths or showers a person is likely to have, the longer they stay in and the hotter the temperature. Warm physical experiences were found to significantly reduce the distress of social exclusion.

Moreover, “The lonelier we get, the more we substitute the missing social warmth with physical warmth,” says one of the study’s researchers. Imagine if Sex and the City were one woman and three bathtubs!