Temperature & temperment. A psychologist looks at comfort

Comfort addresses the acoustics, air quality, lighting and thermal aspects of the environment. The environmental preference is based on value judgments and its measurement is difficult. This paper refers to researches on thermal comfort for almost 40 years. The experiments prove that comfort is to a certain extent a state of mind. It is at "comfortable" temperatures that we differ the most in perception.The recognition of the subjectiveness is essential and basic for future studies of humans and their thermal environment.