eli5: How come when we sit down where someone else has been sitting, it feels warm. Yet when we sit down where we have been sitting already, you don’t feel anything.

Question

Potentially dumb question but I’ve been curious about this for a while.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Because if we were just sitting there, we already know what the temperature is and are already acclimated to it.

When we sit where someone else is, however, we do not expect that and it’s the fact that it does not match what we were expected to feel that gets our attention.