The term “hot-blooded” has fallen out of favor, as observations about anything outside the gray zone of multiculturalism are forbidden. It used to be a common way to describe people from the parts of the world near the equator. An Italian or Mexican could be described as hot-blooded, to mean emotional or passionate. It was not an insult, as people who were “hot-blooded” were also well meaning, just more emotional than the northern European type. Of course, this is strictly forbidden now, so no one says it.
Maybe there is something else about being hot-blooded. According to Gallup, the Filipinos are the happiest people on earth. Without studying it too closely, it really does look like being excitable tracks with general happiness. On the other end, the people from colder climates are the least happy. Singapore tops the list, but the usual suspects from the cold, Caucasian outposts fill out the top ten. The method for building the list probably falls far short of what most people would call empirical, but it is interesting.
Gallup went out and asked people a series of questions like “Did you feel well rested yesterday?” and “Did you smile and laugh a lot yesterday?” and tabulated the results into this least of most and least happiest nations. Presumably, the more you laugh and sleep, the more emotional you are according to Gallup. That makes sense. You never hear about great Russian comics or Swedish funny men. Of course, laughing is something contented people would do, so getting plenty of sleep makes sense, as well.
That said, the results do conform to what we tend to think about people. Filipinos do seem like happy little people. In fact, most people think of the southern latitudes as relaxed and happy places. It’s not just the weather that attracts whites from the north to places like the Caribbean. They go there to relax, because the culture is relaxed and the people seem happy. That said, Gallup was not going to headline their study “Swarthy People of the South Most Hot Blooded” as that would get them sent to the camps.
The question, of course, is what’s on the flip-side of this coin. People who are emotional are less rational. A great chess player or poker player is one who controls his passions and is clinical in his approach to the game. You really see this in poker these days. The winners are almost always men from STEM fields. They maintain a dispassionate engagement with the game and rely on their opponents to let their emotions get the better of them. In other words, the dispassionate are better at controlling their environment.
Then there is the link between emotion and time preference. A child has a high time preference and throws a fit when they don’t get what they want. To survive in the north means putting off today so you can food in the winter. People are happy and getting planet of sleep don’t have to worry if they put up enough supplies to last the winter or weather their hut is weather proofed. Perhaps the trade-off is you get happiness or you get a lot of civilization stuff done. That really does not sound like a great trade.
