Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren A bogle Bomb here. Question, what all do astronauts, modernly traditional brides, American author Tom Wolf, and some people trying to keep cool in hot weather have in common? Answer? They all wear white, and that's probably what all they have in common, but you never know anyway.
The sartorial thinking is this, fabrics of the lightest colors force all the solar heat fighting its way to our skin to just reflect away instead, where dark fabrics, the idea goes, and you're stuck with that heat. Is it greedily absorbs into the fabric and causes you to swelter in your own clothes. But white clothing will cheerfully bounce that solar heat right off, and you'll be more comfortable
on a hot day. But while all that certainly sounds great in theory, there are a few other factors at play that might be working against the light clothing adage. At the very least, there is some compelling evidence in the form of a real, true scientific study that says it doesn't matter. Let's start with some research published in night in the journal Nature titled why the Bedouins wear
black robes and hot deserts. The researchers were curious about the fact that in oppressive heat, the residents of the Sinai Desert wear billowing black robes instead of say white or maybe a pretty pale lavender. What they found was when they tested white robes versus black, and note that they did this by having some poor guy stand out in the heat while recording temperature, the differences were nil. They found that the black clothing did more to absorb heat,
but that's where it stayed. In other words, the black soaks up additional heat, but that extra is law by the time it actually gets to your skin. A way more useful for keeping cool, however, was the fact that the robes are loose and billowing to allow air flow.
There's also a concept that the whole light clothing argument is missing a key element the person who's wearing the clothes, meaning that the heat your body radiates will reflect off of white clothing as readily as heat from the sun does, bouncing back to your body and actually keeping you toastier. Not a bad theory, but it's not been tested on humans. It's only been studied in birds with white plumage, and
that with mixed results. So the answer is it doesn't make a huge difference whether you're wearing black or white in hot weather as long as you choose loose, breathable clothing either way. Today's episode is based on the article should you wear light colored clothes and hot weather to stay cool? On how stuff works dot com written by Kate Kirshner. Brain Stuff is production of i Heeart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and is
produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.