I don't know specifically about your car but in general it is possible. Some cars have a cam that opens the throttle plate when the engine is cold to increase the idle. My 99 Nissan Almera has such a cam.
The cooling system has two purposes. The obvious one is to disperse excess heat and prevent the engine from overheating. The less obvious one is to make sure a cold engine reaches optimum operating temperature as quickly as possible.
There are two ways this second task are accomplished. One is by the use of a thermostat. The thermostat prevent coolant from flowing from the engine to the radiator until the engine has reached a certain temperature ( usually around 85*C) at which point it starts to open and allow the circulation of coolant.
The second way is artificially increase the idle, which increase heat production, and brings engine up to temperature. This is usually done in one of two ways. Some cars use the IAC ( Idle Air Control ) and others use a special CAM connected directly to the throttle plate. As the engine warms up the amount of extra idle will slowly be backed off by the ECU.
Based on your comment, it sounds like you've got such a CAM on your throttle, and I suspect this may be more common on smaller engines. Also, if you're seeing that your friend's engine is not getting above a certain temperature, his thermostat might be stuck open, or a previous owner may have even completely removed the thermostat, which happened to me once.