As part of the study, more than 500 individuals were asked to carry out certain tasks, such as math and verbal tasks, under varying office temperatures.
“We find that, for math and verbal tasks, consistent with their subjective temperature preferences, women perform better both on the extensive and intensive margins at high temperatures than at low temperatures (i.e., women both attempt to solve, and correctly solve more math and verbal tasks at higher vs. lower temperatures),” the study notes. “Men display the opposite pattern, performing better at lower temperatures. In contrast to math and verbal tasks, temperature has no impact on cognitive reflection test performance for either gender.”