External temperature being equal, why do people perceive temperature differently?

Side note:
Maybe we should first ask: how do people perceive temperature at all?
The answer to your question is probably a natural variation in that mechanism.

Don’t forget the differences in clothing, body hair, body fat, and head hair.
One person in the room might be wearing a sweater and long pants while the other is wearing a short skirt and tank top.

I’ve always been interested in this because for as long as I can remember I have always been a “cold person”. No matter the season, summer or winter I feel cold, I’ll be the one wearing a sweater (lots of layers in the winter). That having been said I am a summer baby (born in June) and was also a very sickly child having been affected by bronical bronchitis all through my childhood years and now in adulthood by chest infections (where most people will pick up a cold and get rid of it fairly quickly, it will fall into my lungs and is the devil to clear up). Whatever the reason I do feel the cold terribly, even in summer.

Emphasis mine:

“The body is very adept at maintaining temperature within a narrow and safe range, despite occasional huge variations in the room temperature.

But some bodies are more efficient than others. Even bodies of the same height and weight may differ dramatically in the ability to maintain body temperature.

Humans also differ in their preferred room temperature. Some like it warmer, some cooler. This is called thermal comfort. Thermal comfort is not merely physical, but psychological too. In one’s choice of preferred temperature, besides psychology, other personal factors come into the equation. Two of these are clothing levels (their insulation value) and activity level (their effect on body metabolism).”

Source

Every person has a slightly different(more or less) metabolic rate. We create different amounts of heat which are lost at varying rates. Many factors are involved: clothing choices, sweatiness, etc. As @marinelife mentioned, personal preferences may also be involved. I personally do not like it when my fingers and toes are colder than the rest of my body (frequently the case) where as some people may just accept that as part of their condition and not consider themselves cold just because their toes feel like they are falling off.

Yeah, @worriedguy, I like the one in the short skirt and tank top… she’s hot.

It’s also a relative thing compared to what people have ‘commonly’ experienced in their environments, and what they have experienced ‘recently’ before being exposed to the current environment. Someone coming inside on a cold day might exclaim at how warm it is, even though this is not typically a comfortable temperature for them. Likewise someone just getting out of a warm bed or bath might feel a chill.

I, for one, am always cold. I think it’s my blood circulation but I never checked it out.

I think its a combination of heredity and environment (not to mention age, i.e., hot flashes.) My husband and his brother were raised in a house with no central heating and a coal fire in the living room. They rarely express discomfort with the temperature by being either too hot or too cold, while I (a hot-house flower) am often either too hot or too cold.

Just a note: did you know that people see colors differently?

Point.

There’s beauty in differences.

@squirbel GA and very well said. <hugs> I didn’t know that people saw colours differently though, well except I’ve heard about some people being “colour blind”, I’ve heard of it but am not really sure what it is exactly, its supposed to be something to do with seeing (or not being able to see?) green and red.
huggles xx

An idea that’s been expressed here that I can’t get my mind around is that color is not intrinsic to the object but only exists in the brain’s perception of it.

@bunnygrl Colour-blindness