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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

Or maybe just a climate thing? I find I want to talk much less when my face is freezing. In the long term I imagine this could have easily turned into a habit/cultural thing. You also hear about Latin American people being much "warmer" and friendly, etc.

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It isn’t a climate thing. The further north you go through Finland, up to where the cold season lasts much longer than in the south, the more talkative people become. Northerners may not have smalltalk interactions with strangers, but they are more talkative among themselves than people in southern Finland.

i find the british are pretty chatty, even when its freezing. Yes, warm weather -> people being outdoors -> eventually chat more (and don't do much work)

As somebody from the UK who moved to Finland, there's a big difference in the degrees of "Freezing".

Sure in the UK somebody might say they're freezing at -5, but in Finland I've been as cold as -25, even in the South.

(People in Finland are better dressed for the weather, and houses are all pretty new, so they're generally well-insulated. But there's probably some truth in the idea that talking to strangers becomes less appealing when you're wrapped in scarves, and winter-gear.)

As a Finn, I would say that people at least in Finland tend to be more closed during winter than during summer. I think I saw some study where they seemed to notice this kind of pattern as well, but I think the study was done outside Finland.

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