The tendency to openly show one’s emotional reactions to other people, whether with explicit words, or voice tone, or body language. Someone can be called “cold” if they speak in a monotone and rarely make clear facial expressions, or if they never acknowledge their emotional states.
The tendency to recognize and (to some degree) reflect the emotional states of the people around oneself. The person who’s usually first to ask someone else if they’re all right when they’re behaving oddly, for instance, is displaying warmth. A person who fails to notice that someone else is upset, or pretends to ignore it, is being cold.
I’d agree with this, and add a point that the interaction between 1 and 2 is also important—a little signalling of empathy injects a lot of warmth into a comment or interaction.
“Warmth” means at least two things:
The tendency to openly show one’s emotional reactions to other people, whether with explicit words, or voice tone, or body language. Someone can be called “cold” if they speak in a monotone and rarely make clear facial expressions, or if they never acknowledge their emotional states.
The tendency to recognize and (to some degree) reflect the emotional states of the people around oneself. The person who’s usually first to ask someone else if they’re all right when they’re behaving oddly, for instance, is displaying warmth. A person who fails to notice that someone else is upset, or pretends to ignore it, is being cold.
I’d agree with this, and add a point that the interaction between 1 and 2 is also important—a little signalling of empathy injects a lot of warmth into a comment or interaction.