Researchers worldwide have recently expressed a shared interest in weather and how it affects the moods of people.  This interest was sparked both by an increase in seasonal depression and the current concern of climate change.  It has been conventionally understood that all aspects of weather, including amounts of sunlight, wind, temperature, and precipitation are very influential on human disposition, but one study in Germany came to a surprisingly different conclusion.
According to this study, conducted by the Humboldt University in Berlin, these factors did not have a substantial influence on the moods of those surveyed.  Many disagree with their findings, arguing that they feel heavily affected by the weather on a daily basis.  The conflicting notions on this subject have sparked more interest in it and more studies are in the works.
One such study seeks to discover the impact that long periods of high temperatures can have on crime, based on the belief that when temperatures soar for an extended amount of time, people grow short-tempered and aggressive, and are more likely to commit a crime.  A number of law enforcement agencies are compiling their data that evidences a connection between high temperatures and an increase in crime.
Italians have conducted such research on this relationship between heat and crime and are even more specific in their findings:  according to a study conducted by La Sapienza University in Rome, the country’s suicide and murder rates increase up to 20 percent when the summer heat takes effect.  It is suggested dehydration as the most responsible factor in this dramatic upsurge in crime, based on the belief that the outer layer of the brain requires water to function properly.  When a person becomes dehydrated, their brain has trouble regulating negative and aggressive impulses that originate in the deeper parts of brain tissue.