Extended heat waves have a way of triggering sporadic neighborhood street violence, right?
Not necessarily, says Richard Larrick, a researcher at Duke University Fuqua School of Business in Durham, N.C. Mr. Larrick took a unique look at the correlation between violence and heat through the eyes of a summertime tradition: baseball.
Larrick and his research team examined 57,294 Major League Baseball games taking place between 1952 and 2009 and found that high temperatures were directly correlated with batters getting hit by wild pitches – but only in retaliation for another teammate getting hit earlier in the game.
His broader conclusion is that while heat may increase aggression, there always has to be a motive. “Heat does not lead to more aggression in general. Instead, heat affects a specific form of aggression … retribution,” he said in a statement.
“Baseball fans will tell you the sport's code of honor dictates you're supposed to hit a player on the other team when your player has been hit,… [but] nobody seems to be aware that players apply the rule much more at high temperatures than at cool temperatures,” he says.
