Written by: Benedicte Hilde Tandsæther-Andersen

The weather affects which lottery coupon you pick, which car you buy and which political party you are voting for.

((Photo: Diving at the Valley Baths of Brisbane, Queensland (1938). Found on www.nos.twnsnd.co No known Copyright restrictions.))

No matter who we are or where we come from — there’s one thing Norwegians always have to deal with: the weather. We are said to talk about it non-stop, poems have been written about it, and outdoor parties are canceled because of it. And we just love nice weather: Sun is a luxury product in Bergen, and the northern and southern parts of Norway “compete” in having the nicest weather every summer. In comparison, people in Egypt cling together to record videos of rain and rainbows when the intense sunlight takes a rare break. Spring’s first sunshine warms the Norwegians while we sit outside for too long and get too cold, while we repeatedly say “but it’s so sunny!”. The ensuing flu we might get can almost be justified by the “social responsibility” we have when we have grown up or settled in this country: There is sunlight, hence we must go outside. Nature is an integral part of many Norwegians’ identity, but is the weather also this crucial?

The brain is an organ, and glucose is what helps it work. Without glucose, the brain is not of any particular benefit to us: We need glucose when we walk, talk, eat, but also when we make decisions. At the same time, the mind can trick us — it doesn’t always help us make the best decisions. For example — in the future, we’ll have all the time we need: We will have BBQ almost every day during the summer, we will paint our house, go hiking in the mountains, go to the beach a lot, go on a vacation, learn French, have a summer job and read the books we got for Christmas. But what are we actually going to do? Buy French dictionaries and learning guides, scroll on Facebook, work and watch the rain while it’s flowing in streams down the street outside the restaurant, shop or café where our summer will be spent behind the counter. It’s much more fun to plan for the ideal summer!

Photo: Ring of Kerry. Found on www.nos.twnsnd.co No known Copyright restrictions.

Psychologists and economists have come to the conclusion that we are suffering from “projection bias” when we make bad choices. We imagine the future in the wrong way, and make choices that don’t necessarily serve us in the long run. On a warm summer day in June, we buy a beautiful coastal property with an unobstructed view of the open sea. Despite the sky-high price and a narrow dirt road as the only entry route to the beautiful house, this house must be purchased. And so, our dreams of being a “proper adult” are fulfilled. We were standing there while wearing shorts, a singlet and sandals — and we dreamed of spending both Christmas Eve and Midsummer in this house, with the beautiful ocean as a backdrop to our idyllic life. At the same time, we probably didn’t think clearly: Quite frankly, we would just have needed an ice cream or a bath in the ocean to think about the property more coldly. Research has shown that while heat makes it harder to reason, cold weather makes it easier to decide. Had the house been sold in November, when an autumn storm ravaged around the house’s corners and the waves crashed onto the shore, perhaps the information “coastal property with unobstructed view of the open sea” would’ve have appeared differently.

To win or not to win

And when we’ve finally bought this beautiful house, and go to the local supermarket to do some shopping for our new life, we suddenly see the lottery stall behind the counter. Buying a lottery coupon seems very tempting — and like a realistic opportunity — to win one million Norwegian kroners (about 117.000 USD). Nevertheless, we also stand here having to pick between two seemingly good lottery coupons: So which should we choose? Well, as always — the weather determines what we end up choosing: In the hot, humid air, we will choose a scratch-card. Then, we’ll only have one or two areas to scratch, and we won’t have to do much thinking. A lotto coupon will require more of us, and is the best choice for cold weather. This means ice cold calculation for ice cold weather, and we do a lot of reasoning while picking our lucky numbers. Just the same, we will pick the warming weightlessness of a scratch-card for the tropical summer. Even before we put the scratch-card in our wallet, our luck has been decided for us.

The next time we are at the local supermarket, the circumstances may have reversed: It’s raining heavily from the dark clouds in the sky, and a water leak in the attic wears its brown stains on the white-painted ceiling in the living room. This time, we choose a lotto coupon, and we stand at the lottery stall — plotting, in the most ice-cold way we can manage, and considering the pros and cons of the different numbers. We are strong in believing that our grandmother’s date of birth, combined with her age and street address, will grant us the million prize.

Photo: New High-Rise Apartments on the Southern Outskirts of a City. Found on www.nos.twnsnd.co No known Copyright restrictions.

Sad, but economical

Now, when the autumn’s darkness falls upon us, there’s also one thing many of us notice: We already miss the summer. It was just here, but now only a few of us will wear T-shirts and sandals. But it’s more than just our clothing choices that change when darkness falls: When exposed to less sunlight, the body produces melatonin. This hormone makes you feel sleepy. At the same time, the brain begins to produce less serotonin, which (among other things) affects our mood. We are — simply put — sad, tired and pale, but at least we save money: Sunlight makes the money sit loosely in the wallet, research has shown.

Prior to the 2017 parliamentary elections in Norway, a news story told us that the weather could affect which party we would vote for: Jo Thori Lind, Professor of Economic Institute (UiO — University of Oslo), has found that rainy weather strengthens the right-wing side on an election day. Sunshine strengthens the left-wing side. This is a trend which has been going on ever since the 1970s — at least. There has long been a more or less “confirmed assumption” that rainy weather causes fewer people to vote, but Lind’s research shows that rainy weather tends to make more people vote.

Photo: A fox in a July snowstorm. Found on www.nos.twnsnd.co No known Copyright restrictions.

The dream of a cabriolet

And in the garage, you might have hidden away a choice you took when the sun was high in the sky, you were planning a road trip in Europe and the ice-cream was melting in the summer heat: a red convertible with a folding roof. This is another result of our highly human inability to plan for the long-term commitments. The summer would last forever — or so you thought — when the car was bought and driven under blue skies. And yes, you were right back then — because during a hot summer, it may be hard to imagine the bitter cold that will cling to the house’s walls, street corners and cars just half a year later. The next winter will definitely not be as bad as the previous one, we think to ourselves once the summer heat sets in again.

Did you ever think that the weather only determines whether you are arranging a picnic or going skiing, and not which party you vote for on the election day? Then it’s time to rethink your own perception of who you are and what you do, it seems. We can now make way for the more existential questions about identity: Whether we think something or not – this depends on whether or not we are able to keep opinions steady over time. Suppress the power of the weather, and vote for the left-wing parties while it’s pouring down outside the polling room. Choose a scratch-card when you are freezing in your wool underwear, and buy a cabriolet in December. Unless you actually want to vote for the right-wing parties when it’s raining, pick the lotto coupon when it’s cold and scroll past the convertible ads when it’s snowy. Then of course, let the weather decide!