Singing (or cursing) in the rain: gender differences in weather preferences

Project Abstract

Problem or major purpose: Although prior research interprets women’s behavioral changes in response to weather as evidence of greater affective or biological sensitivity (e.g., Govind et al., 2020; Jiao et al., 2021; Schmidt et al., 2013).  For example, Govind and colleagues (2020) found that when the weather is bad, women are more likely to consume hedonic goods and services (e.g., overeat, drink, go to the movies).  However, this explanation may be overly reductive. Rather than stemming from emotional vulnerability, these findings may instead reflect differences in self-presentation demands across genders. Women, for instance, face greater social and cultural pressure to maintain certain appearance standards, which are directly influenced by environmental factors such as humidity, temperature, and precipitation. Poor weather conditions may thus constrain women’s ability to meet appearance-related norms, influencing their mood and behavioral choices—not because they are inherently more reactive or affective, but because the social costs of not maintaining appearance standards are higher. Conversely, men’s self-presentation norms are generally less tied to environmental appearance cues, and more tied to achievement cues, which may explain their apparent behavioral stability across weather conditions (Brown, et al., 1998; Haferkamp et. al, 2012). The current study was conducted to examine if weather affects observable behaviors of self-presentation in both genders differently.

Procedure: The data was gathered via pencil/paper surveys given to students in various places (e.g., library, classrooms, dining halls) at a midwestern public university.   Participants (N = 99; 59 females, 37 males, and 3 nonbinary) were simply asked if they would like to complete a brief survey.  The participants ranged in age from 18 to 61 years (M = 22.31 SD = 8.95).  The sample was predominately white (N = 83)

Results (to date) or expected results:  It was expected that gender differences will be reported, in that females will report more negative affect and behavioral differences (e.g., time spent waiting for the storm to pass) than males.  Furthermore, it is expected that negative weather-related scores will be positively correlated with reported self-presentation behaviors (e.g., wearing make-up), overall appearance importance, and expected negative consequences (e.g., shirt becomes see-through).  For females the importance of appearance is positively correlated with worrying about clothes getting ruined (r(56) = .35, p = .007) and experiencing displeasure from walking in the rain (r(55) = -.46, p = .001).  Additionally, being horrified that your shirt is so wet that it is see through is correlated with displeasure of walking in the rain (r(55) = -.34, p = .009).  Importantly none of these relationships were present for males.  The measure “Worrying about walking in bad weather ruining my clothes” varied with both genders (t(93) = -2.22, p= .015) (Females M = 3.62 SD = 2.18; Males M = 2.68 SD = 1.75).

Conclusions and implications: In short, the observed gender differences in weather-related behaviors may be less about emotional reactivity and more about contextual differences in self-presentation pressure.

Conference

Conference Name:  Midwestern Psychological Association

Dates:  April 16-18, 2026

Sponsoring Body:  Not Applicable

Conferences Website:  https://midwesternpsych.org

Funding Type

Travel Grant

Academic College

College of Humanities and Fine Arts

Area/Major/Minor

Psychology

Degree

Psychology

Classification

Junior

Name

Jana Hackathorn, PhD. and Daniel Wann, PhD.

Academic College

College of Humanities and Fine Arts

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