- "Cuffing season" describes the phenomenon of wanting to couple up for the winter.
- This instinct is based in how we evolved to stay warm as a species.
- Even in the age of modern technology, we still enjoy using body heat to warm up.
There seems to be a rush of singles hoping to find someone in the fall so they can settle down for the winter, relationship expert Jaime Bronstein told Insider.
The season is sprinkled with events where you might want a partner to cozy up with: the office party with an optional plus-one, bringing someone home for the holidays, and snowy days when you just want to stay inside watching old movies and drinking something warm.
This winter dating phenomenon — known as "cuffing season" in millennial and Gen Z circles — has risen in popularity in recent years, but the urge to couple up is way older than our words for it.
Humans evolved to press together to stay warm back when the other option was shivering under a heap of animal skins, neuroscientist James Coan told Insider. Cuddling started out as a less metabolically taxing option, and it eventually became something to look forward to.
Even in the age of thermostats and oversized sweaters, we still look for reasons to get cozy with loved ones, Coan said. Coupling up for the winter is just one excuse to seek out that comfort.
"In a way, the cold is just an opportunity to love each other more," he said.
We evolved our social networks to stay warm
After breathing, regulating core temperature is probably the most important task the body has, Coan told Insider. Some of his research leads back to social thermoregulation, or the theory that our social networks evolved around keeping warm.
Even today, people with higher levels of social integration are better protected against the cold, according to a 2018 study called The Human Penguin Project. Hans IJzerman, a social psychologist and lead author of the study, told Insider that people with diverse social networks — measured by the number of strong relationships in their lives — are better at regulating their core body temperature in the cold.
The association was especially strong for people in romantic relationships, although IJzerman and colleagues don't yet know why. Attachment style may also play a role; in a separate study, people tended to think more of their loved ones in artificially cold conditions compared to warmer temperatures, but only if they had secure attachment based on past relationships.
These instincts may seem like vestiges of our pre-industrial past, but the invention of electricity was not long ago in the wider picture of human history.
"This is all so recent, evolutionarily speaking, that the link between relationships and temperature cannot have disappeared," IJzerman said.
Cuddling with loved ones still feels good, even when we don't need it
Since thermoregulation is so tied to our evolution, it's still intrinsically pleasing for us to press our bodies against each other even when we don't need to, Coan said.
"There's a real joy that comes from having been cold and then getting together with someone and cuddling under some blankets," he said.
Add a touch of seasonal affective disorder and holiday-season social plans, and it's no wonder that we don't want to be alone for the winter, Bronstein said.
"The holidays can feel lonely, so singles do everything to avoid that," she said. "Feeling loved and loving someone can lift your mood."