10 Simple Postures That Boost Performance
We tend to think of body language as something that expresses our internal states to the outside world. But it also works the other way around: the position of our body also influences our mind.
As the following psychological research shows, how we move can drive both thoughts and feelings and this can boost performance.
1. Pose for powerIf you want to feel more powerful then adopt a powerful posture. Carney et al. (2010) found that when people stood or sat in powerful poses for one minute—those involving open limbs and expansive gestures—they not only felt more powerful but had increased levels of testosterone flooding their systems. Powerful poses take up more space, so spread your body and open up the arms or legs. When you dominate the space, your mind gets the message.
2. Tense up for willpowerTensing up your muscles can help increase your willpower. In a series of 5 studies Hung and Labroo (2011) found that when people firmed up their muscles they were better able to withstand pain, resist tempting food, take an unpleasant medicine and pay attention to disturbing information. So, if you need to increase your willpower, tense your muscles. It should help.
3. Cross arms for persistenceIf you’re stuck on a problem which needs persistence then try crossing your arms. Friedman and Elliot (2008) had participants do just that and found they worked longer at a set of difficult anagrams. In fact about twice as long. Their persistence led to more correct solutions.
4. Lie down for insightIf crossing your arms doesn’t work then try lying down. When Lipnicki and Byrne (2005) had anagram solvers lying down, they solved them faster. Since anagrams are a type of insight problem, lying down may help you reach creative solutions.
5. Nap for performanceWhile you’re lying down, why not have a nap? Napping is an art-form though. Nap too long and you’ll suffer from sleep inertia: the feeling of being drowsy for an extended period. Nap too little and there’s no point. Where’s the sweet spot?
Brooks & Lack (2005) compared 5, 10, 20 and 30 minute naps to find the best length. For increased cognitive performance, vigour and wakefulness, the best naps were 10 minutes long. Benefits were seen immediately after 10 minute naps but after longer naps it took longer to wake up. Five minute naps only provided half the benefit, but were better than nothing.
6. Gesture for persuasionThe way people’s hands cut through the air while they talk is fascinating. But it’s more than just a by-product of communication. Maricchiolo et al. (2008) found that hand-gestures help increase the power of a persuasive message when compared to no use of gesture. Most effective are gestures which make what you are saying more understandable. For example, when referring to the past, point behind you.
7. And gesture for understandingGestures aren’t only helpful for persuading others, they also help us think. In a study of children, Cook et al. (2007) found that children who were encouraged to gesture while learning, retained more of what they learnt. Moving our hands may help us learn; more generally we actually seem to think with our hands.
8. Smile for happinessThe very act of smiling can make you feel happy, whether it’s justified or not. Strack et al. (1988) had participants holding pens in their mouths either so that it activated the muscles responsible for smiling, or not. Those whose smiling muscles were activated rated cartoons as funnier than others whose smiling muscles weren’t activated by the pen in their mouth. So, forcing a smile really does make us see the world in a better light.
9. Mimic to empathiseIf you want to get inside someone’s head, you can try copying their behaviour. Those who are good at empathising do it automatically: copying accent, posture, expressions and so on. If you can copy it, you will feel it yourself and then you’ll get a hint of what others are feeling. It’s what actors have known for years: mimicry is a great way of simulating others’ emotional states.
10. Imitate to comprehendThe idea that copying helps us understand others works for thought as well as emotion. In an experiment by Adank (2010), participants found it easier to decipher an unfamiliar accent if they tried to imitate it themselves. Some psychologists go further, claiming that imitating others helps us predict what they are going to do (e.g. Pickering & Garrod, 2007).
Embodied cognitionMany of these studies support a theory about human life (and indeed all life) called ‘embodied cognition’. The idea is that we don’t just think with our minds, we also think with our bodies. Our mind isn’t a brain in a jar, it is connected to a body which moves around in an environment.
As life becomes increasingly virtual, played out on screens of varying sizes, we need reminding that the connection between mind and body is two-way. Human intelligence is more than abstract processing power; it’s about the interaction between mind, body and the world around us.
(via PsyBlog)
How to influence your mind by changing your body position
We tend to think of body language as something that expresses our internal states to the outside world. But it also works the other way around: the position of our body also influences our mind.
As the following psychological research shows, how we move can drive both thoughts and feelings and this can boost performance.
1. Pose for power
If you want to feel more powerful then adopt a powerful posture. Carney et al. (2010) found that when people stood or sat in powerful poses for one minute—those involving open limbs and expansive gestures—they not only felt more powerful but had increased levels of testosterone flooding their systems. Powerful poses take up more space, so spread your body and open up the arms or legs. When you dominate the space, your mind gets the message.
2. Tense up for willpower
Tensing up your muscles can help increase your willpower. In a series of 5 studies Hung and Labroo (2011) found that when people firmed up their muscles they were better able to withstand pain, resist tempting food, take an unpleasant medicine and pay attention to disturbing information. So, if you need to increase your willpower, tense your muscles. It should help.
3. Cross arms for persistence
If you’re stuck on a problem which needs persistence then try crossing your arms. Friedman and Elliot (2008) had participants do just that and found they worked longer at a set of difficult anagrams. In fact about twice as long. Their persistence led to more correct solutions.
4. Lie down for insight
If crossing your arms doesn’t work then try lying down. When Lipnicki and Byrne (2005) had anagram solvers lying down, they solved them faster. Since anagrams are a type of insight problem, lying down may help you reach creative solutions.
5. Nap for performance
While you’re lying down, why not have a nap? Napping is an art-form though. Nap too long and you’ll suffer from sleep inertia: the feeling of being drowsy for an extended period. Nap too little and there’s no point. Where’s the sweet spot?
Brooks & Lack (2005) compared 5, 10, 20 and 30 minute naps to find the best length. For increased cognitive performance, vigour and wakefulness, the best naps were 10 minutes long. Benefits were seen immediately after 10 minute naps but after longer naps it took longer to wake up. Five minute naps only provided half the benefit, but were better than nothing.
6. Gesture for persuasion
The way people’s hands cut through the air while they talk is fascinating. But it’s more than just a by-product of communication. Maricchiolo et al. (2008) found that hand-gestures help increase the power of a persuasive message when compared to no use of gesture. Most effective are gestures which make what you are saying more understandable. For example, when referring to the past, point behind you.
7. And gesture for understanding
Gestures aren’t only helpful for persuading others, they also help us think. In a study of children, Cook et al. (2007) found that children who were encouraged to gesture while learning, retained more of what they learnt. Moving our hands may help us learn; more generally we actually seem to think with our hands.
8. Smile for happiness
The very act of smiling can make you feel happy, whether it’s justified or not. Strack et al. (1988) had participants holding pens in their mouths either so that it activated the muscles responsible for smiling, or not. Those whose smiling muscles were activated rated cartoons as funnier than others whose smiling muscles weren’t activated by the pen in their mouth. So, forcing a smile really does make us see the world in a better light.
9. Mimic to empathise
If you want to get inside someone’s head, you can try copying their behaviour. Those who are good at empathising do it automatically: copying accent, posture, expressions and so on. If you can copy it, you will feel it yourself and then you’ll get a hint of what others are feeling. It’s what actors have known for years: mimicry is a great way of simulating others’ emotional states.
10. Imitate to comprehend
The idea that copying helps us understand others works for thought as well as emotion. In an experiment by Adank (2010), participants found it easier to decipher an unfamiliar accent if they tried to imitate it themselves. Some psychologists go further, claiming that imitating others helps us predict what they are going to do (e.g. Pickering & Garrod, 2007).
Embodied cognition
Many of these studies support a theory about human life (and indeed all life) called ‘embodied cognition’. The idea is that we don’t just think with our minds, we also think with our bodies. Our mind isn’t a brain in a jar, it is connected to a body which moves around in an environment.
As life becomes increasingly virtual, played out on screens of varying sizes, we need reminding that the connection between mind and body is two-way. Human intelligence is more than abstract processing power; it’s about the interaction between mind, body and the world around us.
(Source)
Five Effortless Postures that Foster Creative Thinking
There are lots of metaphors floating around in creativity. We talk about ‘thinking outside the box’, ‘putting two and two together’ and ‘seeing both sides of the problem’.
But are these only metaphors or can we boost our creativity by taking them literally? We know our minds interact in all sorts of interesting ways with our bodies, so what if we enacted these metaphors physically?
That’s the question Leung et al. (2012) examine in a new study published in the journal Psychological Science. This brings together two of my favourite topics here on PsyBlog: creativity and embodied cognition. Across five studies they tested ways of making people more creative by simply changing postures.
1. On one hand…on the other handCreative ideas are often arrived at by bringing together two apparently unrelated thoughts. When we can think about a problem in terms of two different sides, we are more likely to find a way to integrate them. This is encapsulated by the phrase “On the one hand…on the other hand…”
So, what if while trying to solve a problem you physically hold up one hand followed by the other? Might this send a signal to the unconscious to encourage it to consider the problem from more than one angle?
Leung et al. had participants doing this and found that those who gestured with both hands came up with more novel ideas than those who gestured with just one hand.
2. Literally sit outside a box‘Thinking outside the box’ is an awfully overused cliché. Nevertheless it does capture the idea that in creativity you have to try and explore new areas.
In their research Leung et al. had participants literally either sitting in boxes or sitting next to boxes while doing creativity tests. Magically just this simple manipulation worked. People quite literally sitting outside the box came up with more ideas than those sitting in the box.
3. Wander around, but not in a squareIf you don’t have a box handy, you might like to try just wandering around randomly, but whatever happens don’t walk in a square.
Leung et al. found that people came up with more ideas when they wandered around randomly than when they walked in a square or than when they didn’t walk at all.
4. Put two and two togetherNot all creative thinking is about plucking amazing ideas out of the ether.
Sometimes we need to do the grunt work of logically fitting together ideas or objects we’ve already got in front of us. We’ve got to put two and two together and make sure the answer isn’t 17, metaphorically speaking.
This is what psychologists call ‘convergent thinking’ and it’s where we bring our logic, knowledge and skills to bear on a problem.
A fourth study tested the idea that sorting piles of cards from two stacks into one would encourage convergent thinking.
It did. Participants who sorted the cards from two piles into one did better on a test of convergent thinking than those who just fiddled around with the cards in one pile.
5. Imagine itToo lazy to get a box or wander around randomly? Then this last study is for you. Here participants either watched a Second Life avatar wandering freely or walking in a square.
According to the results this also worked as those watching the freely wandering avatar came up with more unconventional ideas for gifts than those watching the square-walking avatar.
This one is cool because it shows that the postures aren’t as important as the state of mind that they encourage. The mere suggestion that someone might adopt these postures was enough to cue a more creative state of mind.
And lie downThis new research joins previous studies which have suggested that simple postures can affect creativity.
In one study people lying down were better at solving anagrams (Lipnicki & Byrne, 2005); in another their concentration was boosted by wearing a white coat. And another used mind-body dissonance—e.g. thinking an unhappy thought while smiling—to boost creativity (How To Promote Visionary Thinking).
All of these studies show how the position of our bodies feeds back into the state of our minds. And it also shows how deeply metaphors are planted in our consciousness.
Related Reading: 10 Simple Postures That Boost Performance
(via PsyBlog)
“Parity Principle: If, as we confront some task, a part of the world functions as a process which, were it to go on in the head, we would have no hesitation in accepting as part of the cognitive process, then that part of the world is (for that time) part of the cognitive process.”
—Andy Clark and Dave Chalmers
“The Extended Mind” Analysis 58: 1: 1998 p.7-19 Reprinted in The Philosopher’s Annual vol XXI-1998 (Ridgeview, 2000) p.59-74
dress like someone you admire to help you emulate them
nytimes.comWhy you should dress like Jesus:
A group of researchers at Northwestern School of Management are studying embodied cognition and found that when undergrads wore a white coat they believed to belong to a doctor, their ability to pay attention significantly increases. But, when they wore the same coat they believed to belong to a painter, there was no effect. They go on to say that people think with more than our brains, but with our bodies too. It’s been long established that people perceive you differently by the way you dress, but they are trying to see how the way you dress affects your basic abilities and your readiness to take on different roles. Since doctors are believed to be good at paying attention and careful, the students acted that way too. Funny quote:
“Clothes invade the body and brain, putting the wearer into a different psychological state, he said. He described his own experience from last Halloween (or maybe it should be called National Enclothed Cognition Day).”
He had decided to dress as a pimp, with a fedora, long coat and cane. “When I entered the room, I glided in,” he said. “I felt a very different presence.”
So I’m just going to go around dressing and pretending I’m Liz Falvey, my awesome modern dance teacher who also teaches yoga. “Try to dance your warm-up!” Or maybe I’ll dress like a Buddhist monk…I may be more mindful of what I do and say. lol like I could be any nicer…jk. (confession: I have to combat my sarcastic nature on my blog).
Anyone take this seriously and down to dress like their fitness/health role model (or Katniss)? omgod cosplay may have a purpose…
A Brief Guide to Embodied Cognition: Why You Are Not Your Brain - Samuel McNerney
blogs.scientificamerican.comGood recap of the rise of embodied cognition as a rich field of inquiry, and especially George Lakoff’s contributions:
Samuel McNerney via Scientific American
Metaphors We Live By [by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson] was a game changer. Not only did it illustrate how prevalent metaphors are in everyday language, it also suggested that a lot of the major tenets of western thought, including the idea that reason is conscious and passionless and that language is separate from the body aside from the organs of speech and hearing, were incorrect. In brief, it demonstrated that “our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”
After Metaphors We Live By was published, embodiment slowly gained momentum in academia. In the 1990s dissertations by Christopher Johnson, Joseph Grady and Srini Narayanan led to a neural theory of primary metaphors. They argued that much of our language comes from physical interactions during the first several years of life, as the Affection is Warmth metaphor illustrated. There are many other examples; we equate up with control and down with being controlled because stronger people and objects tend to control us, and we understand anger metaphorically in terms of heat pressure and loss of physical control because when we are angry our physiology changes e.g., skin temperature increases, heart beat rises and physical control becomes more difficult.
This and other work prompted Lakoff and Johnson to publish Philosophy in the Flesh, a six hundred-page giant that challenges the foundations of western philosophy by discussing whole systems of embodied metaphors in great detail and furthermore arguing that philosophical theories themselves are constructed metaphorically. Specifically, they argued that the mind is inherently embodied, thought is mostly unconscious and abstract concepts are largely metaphorical. What’s left is the idea that reason is not based on abstract laws because cognition is grounded in bodily experience (A few years later Lakoff teamed with Rafael Núñez to publish Where Mathematics Comes From to argue at great length that higher mathematics is also grounded in the body and embodied metaphorical thought).
As Lakoff points out, metaphors are more than mere language and literary devices, they are conceptual in nature and represented physically in the brain. As a result, such metaphorical brain circuitry can affect behavior. For example, in a study done by Yale psychologist John Bargh, participants holding warm as opposed to cold cups of coffee were more likely to judge a confederate as trustworthy after only a brief interaction. Similarly, at the University of Toronto, “subjects were asked to remember a time when they were either socially accepted or socially snubbed. Those with warm memories of acceptance judged the room to be 5 degrees warmer on the average than those who remembered being coldly snubbed. Another effect of Affection Is Warmth.” This means that we both physically and literary “warm up” to people.
The last few years have seen many complementary studies, all of which are grounded in primary experiences:
• Thinking about the future caused participants to lean slightly forward while thinking about the past caused participants to lean slightly backwards. Future is Ahead
• Squeezing a soft ball influenced subjects to perceive gender neutral faces as female while squeezing a hard ball influenced subjects to perceive gender neutral faces as male. Female is Soft
• Those who held heavier clipboards judged currencies to be more valuable and their opinions and leaders to be more important. Important is Heavy.
• Subjects asked to think about a moral transgression like adultery or cheating on a test were more likely to request an antiseptic cloth after the experiment than those who had thought about good deeds. Morality is Purity
Studies like these confirm Lakoff’s initial hunch – that our rationality is greatly influenced by our bodies in large part via an extensive system of metaphorical thought.
Three themes of embodiment:
- Conceptualization: The properties of an organism’s body limit or constrain the concepts an organism can acquire. This is, the concepts on which an organism relies to understand its surrounding world depend on the kind of body that it has, so that were organisms to differ with respect to their bodies, they would differ as well in how they understand the world.
- Replacement: An organism’s body in interaction with its environment replaces the need for representational processes thought to have been at the core of cognition. Thus, cognition does not depend on algorithmic processes over symbolic representations. It can take place in systems that do not include representational states, and can be explained without appeal to computational processes or representational states.
- Constitution: The body or world plays a constitutive rather than merely causal role in cognitive processing. To illustrate this distinction in a different context, consider constitutive versus causal roles of oxygen. Oxygen is a constituent of water, because water consists of atoms of oxygen conjoined with atoms of hydrogen. On the other hand, oxygen might be a cause of an explosion, because without the presence of oxygen, the fuse would not have ignited. Likewise, according to the Constitution claim, the body or world is a constituent of, and not merely a causal influence on, cognition.
—Lawrence Shapiro, Embodied Cognition
Thinking in metaphors: Embodied Cognition
People think in metaphors – words like warm and cold, fast and slow, bright and dark. These words mean two things. Cold can be a physical sensation, but also a mood, demeanor or style. Dark can describe a shade of color, or the way a song sounds.
As a result all of your interactions and observations a physically warm scene will be interpreted as being emotionally warm.
In 2008, Lawrence Williams and John Bargh conducted a study where they had people meet strangers. One group held a cup of warm coffee, the other group held iced coffee.
Later, when asked to rate the stranger’s personality, the people who held the warm coffee said they found the stranger to be nice, generous and caring. The other group said the same person was difficult, stand-offish, hard to talk to.
The groups had turned their physical sensations into words, and then used those words as metaphors to explain their perceptions.
Embodied Cognition in the UK
Researching how embodied cognition is studied here in the UK, i found, for my surprise, some interesting postgraduate programmes. Almost every article or book i ever read about this subject was produced by american researchers, specially for those associated with University of California - Berkeley.
The most impressive finding for me was the master of science (MSc) programme in Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition, in the University of Edinburgh. As a was reading Embodied Cognition, the book from Shapiro, he extensively referred to Andy Clark when talking about the second theme - The Replacement Hypothesis. As it seems to be old news for most, Clark has been a working professor at the Philosophy department. I could find information about his work and links for a range of articles in his personal page. For sure, it will be in my prospect for reading about dynamical system and extended mind. Maybe than i can properly understand Shapiro’s arguments for rejecting this theory.
The other interesting finding was the Cambridge Embodied Cognition and Emotion Laboratory. Psychology in Cambridge is known for the tradicional experimental studies. So, it was also a surprise to find this Laboratory, as well as the hole Department of Social and Developmental Psychology. The Laboratory is directed by Simone Schnall. I had curiosity in reading some of her articles to find out if her work would fit in one of Shapiro’s theme. My low analysis led me to think that Schnall’s work can be associated with the first theme - The Conceptualization Hypothesis. The first obvious clue is that she uses as reference the work of Lakoff and Johnson. The other clue is the question within the studies, relating emotion feelings - ex. disgust - and concepts - ex. moral judgment - with bodily actions - ex. washing hands. After reading Shapiro’s book, this theory seems to me as maintaining some inconsistence of standard cognitive psychology, just adding other variable - the body. But that opinion seems naive.
I also found the Embodied Cognition Laboratory, associated to the University of Manchester.
Funny enough, I finally decided to read this article on embodied cognition at this certain cafe that doesn’t necessarily serve my favorite tasting coffee, but I actually come here because I really like the mugs in which they serve their decent-enough lattes. :P
Anyway, I don’t know how I came across this article, How Your Coffee Mug Controls Your Feelings- it’s been sitting as a tab in my Chrome browser for weeks? months? who knows but I finally got around to reading it today and it has a pretty fascinating take on studies of “cognitive ergonomics” and designing for the mind:
“The fact that those people holding warm coffee cups perceived other people to be more generous and caring, and those people sitting in soft chairs were more willing to compromise makes me think three very interesting thoughts: that we never think in a vacuum, that we never, ever, stop thinking, and that designers, some of whom may have considered metaphor as a tool to deliver an experience that users can relate to another positive experience, now have so much more to consider when designing. As for the notion of a thought vacuum, I think its incredible to consider that no matter how bleak an environment you may find yourself in, or how dull an object you may find yourself holding, these things are always influencing how you think and feel about the people and places around you. Industrial and interaction designers are perhaps more aware than most, of how many unpleasant objects exist in the world, waiting to be held or touched, poised to take over our emotions and make us judge people.”
Other research finds of note related to embodied cognition research:
+children can solve math problems better if they are told to use their hands while thinking.
+stage actors remember their lines better when they are moving.
+subjects asked to move their eyes in a specific pattern while puzzling through a brainteaser were twice as likely to solve it.
“What we are suggesting is a change in the nature of reflection from an abstract, disembodied activity to an embodied (mindful), open-ended reflection. By embodied, we mean reflection in which body and mind have been brought together. What this formulation intends to convey is that reflection is not just *on* experience, but reflection *is* a form of experience itself--and that reflective form of experience can be performed with mindfulness/awareness. In our usual training and practice as Western scientists and philosophers, we obviously proceed differently. We ask, "What is the mind?", "What is body?" and proceed to reflect theoretically and to investigate scientifically. This procedure gives rise to a gamut of claims, experiments, and results on various facets of cognitive abilities. But in the course of these investigations we often forget just who is asking this question and how it is asked. By not including ourselves in the reflection, we pursue only a partial reflection, and our question becomes disembodied; it attempts to express, in the words of the philosopher Thomas Nagel, a "view from nowhere." It is ironic that it is just this attempt to have a disembodied view from nowhere that leads to having a view from a very specific, theoretically confined, preconceptually entrapped somewhere. The phenomenological tradition, from Husserl on, complained bitterly about this lack of self-included reflection but was able to offers its place only a project of theoretical reflection *on* experience. The other extreme is to include the self but abandon reflection altogether in favor of a naive, subjective impulsivity. Mindfulness/awareness is neither of these; it works directly with, and so expresses, our basic embodiment. ”
—The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience
Embodied Cognition
I had my first introduction to this topic of cognitive science from the book “Metaphors We Live By”, by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). It is a great recommendation for those who never heard about embodied cognition. This topic challenges the standard cognition science, conceptualizing cognition as embodied, as constituted by the possibilities and limits of our bodies.
I just finished reading the book entitled “Embodied Cognition”, by Lawrence Shapiro (2011). I still don’t have sedimented opinions about the book, but i would like to share some interesting points of view argued by The author. He divided the studies in embodied cognition through three themes: conceptualization, replacement and constitution.
In the conceptualization hypothesis, he places theories like those formulated by Lakoff and Johnson, and by Varela, Thompson and Rosch. Shapiro affirms that studies falling under this theme seeks to show “a connection between the kind of body an organism possess and the concepts it is capable of acquiring” (p. 112). This mean that the concepts we use to understand the world is determined, limited and constrained by our bodies. Shapiro critics this hypothesis mostly in reference to the impossibility of testing its main assumption. He asks how it is possible to test changes in our way of understanding the world if our bodies were in a round shape, if we can’t perform this. By now, it seems to me like a pertinent question to ask.
In the replacement hypothesis, he locates studies from Van Gelder and, Clark and Toribio. Shapiro explain that the replacement projets aim to install a new vision of cognition, placing as partners in the cognitive process brain, body and world. To replace standard cognitive science, it’s proposed new approaches that conceive cognition as embodied - admitting the role of body in action - and situated - considering how the world imposes constraints and opportunities to the body. Approaches like Dynamical Systems Theory and Roboticist Rodney Brooks Architecture. Shapiro allege that these theories fail in proposing a new image for cognitive science, as the models can’t account for all cognitive phenomena. This criticism is still obscure for me, as i don’t have familiarity with this studies. A small response to Shapiro critics was formulated by Doug Holton in his blog.
In the constitution hypothesis, Shapiro places studies from Adams and Aizawa, Noë, and Wilson. When describing this theme, the author brings a dense discussion about the differences between the causal influences on cognition and the constituents of cognition. He proposes that study the causes implies research for a object that precedes cognition, that happens before in time. In other hand, when we talk about constitution of cognition, we are analysing something that happens within cognition. I though this discussion particularly interesting and rich, maybe the most insightful chapter in the book. Shapiro leads us in reasoning about what exactly we mean in saying that the body is a constituent of cognition, opposing the idea of cognition as extending beyond the brain and cognition as taking place outside the brain. A great work in this theme mentioned in the book, that i have some familiarity and would like to suggest, is the research of Goldin-Meadow about gestures.
For more:
Preview of Embodied Cognition on Google Books.
Review of Embodied Cognition, by Kristian Martiny.
Embodied Cognition and Clothing
nytimes.comDId you read this stunning article in the NYT yesterday? You betcha today I’m gonna throw on a conservator’s lab coat so I have just that little more “heightened attention” when handling objects!
Researchers discovered that people who put on a white doctor’s coat scored higher in tests related to paying attention. When they wore an identical white coat they were told was a painter’s coat, their attention improvement was negligible. And they didn’t pay better attention if they simply looked at the coat — the subject had to be wearing it. The researchers concluded that for clothes to have this kind of effect they must be worn, and the wearer must understand their symbolic meaning (in this case, the doctor’s coat represented the typically scrupulous attention physicians pay to detail).
This white coat research piggybacks onto embodied cognition, the field of research that explores the way our bodies and physical movements affect our abstract thought processes. Embodied cognition studies have shown that if you hold a heavy clipboard you feel more important, and that the experience of washing your hands is associated with moral purity.
