Inconsistency among findings in the embodied cognition literature suggests a need for theoretical boundary conditions. The current research proposes that conscious attention of a bodily state can moderate its influence on social judgment. Three studies tested this possibility in the case of the demonstrated effect of weight sensations on judgments of an abstract idea’s importance. Studies 1 and 2 showed that participants rated a topic as more important when holding a moderately heavy, compared with light, clipboard. However, when the clipboard was very heavy, participants rated the survey topic as less important compared with when the clipboard was moderately heavy. The differences in importance ratings were not caused by derogation of the topic or the activation of a different metaphor. In Study 3, the importance rating difference between light and moderately heavy clipboards was eliminated by explicitly drawing perceiver’s attention to the clipboard’s weight. Implications and future directions are discussed.
BorghiA. M.BinkofskiF.CastelfranchiC.CimattiF.ScorolliC.TummoliniL. (2016). The challenge of abstract concepts. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 263-292. doi:10.1037/bul0000089
7.
BoroditskyL.PrinzJ. (2008). What thoughts are made of. In SeminG. R.SmithE. R. (Eds.), Embodied grounding: Social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientific approaches (pp. 98-118). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
8.
BraverS. L.ThoemmesF. J.RosenthalR. (2014). Continuously cumulating meta-analysis and replicability. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 333-342. doi:10.1177/1745691614529796
9.
ChaikenS. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 752-766. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.39.5.752
10.
ChaikenS.TropeY. (Eds.). (1999). Dual-process theories in social psychology. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
11.
ChandlerJ. J.ReinhardD.SchwarzN. (2012). To judge a book by its weight you need to know its content: Knowledge moderates the use of embodied cues. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 948-952. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.03.003
12.
CraigA. D. (2004). Human feelings: Why are some more aware than others?Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 239-241. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.04.004
13.
DamasioA. (2001). Fundamental feelings. Nature, 413, 781-782. doi:10.1038/35101669
14.
EbersoleC. R.AthertonO. E.BelangerA. L.SkulborstadH. M.AllenJ. M.BanksJ. B.. . . NosekB. A. (2016). Many Labs 3: Evaluating participant pool quality across the academic semester via replication. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 67, 68-82. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2015.10.012
15.
EpsteinS.PaciniR. (1999). Some basic issues regarding dual-process theories from the perspective of the cognitive-experiential self-theory. In ChaikenS.TropeY. (Eds.), Dual-process theories in social psychology (pp. 462-482). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
16.
FabrigarL. R.WegenerD. T. (2016). Conceptualizing and evaluating the replication of research results. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 68-80. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2015.07.009
17.
FazioR. H. (1990). Multiple processes by which attitudes guide behavior: The MODE model as an integrative framework. In ZannaM. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 23, pp. 75-109). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
18.
FazioR. H.ZannaM. P.CooperJ. (1977). Dissonance and self-perception: An integrative view of each theory’s proper domain of application. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 464-479. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(77)90031-2
19.
FiskeS. T.NeubergS. L. (1990). A continuum of impression formation, from category-based to individuating processes: Influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 1-74. doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60317-2
20.
FodorJ. A. (1983). The modularity of mind. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
21.
FriedC. B.AronsonE. (1995). Hypocrisy, misattribution, and dissonance reduction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 925-933. doi:10.1177/0146167295219007
22.
GalakJ.MeyvisT. (2012). You could have just asked: Reply to Francis (2012). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 595-596. doi:10.1177/1745691612463079
23.
GawronskiB.BodenhausenG. V. (2006). Associative and propositional processes in evaluation: An integrative review of implicit and explicit attitude change. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 692-731. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.5.692
24.
GibbsR. W.Jr. (2014). Conceptual metaphor in thought and social action. In LandauM. J.RobinsonM. D.MeierB. P. (Eds.), The power of metaphor: Examining its influence on social life (pp. 17-40). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
HäfnerM. (2013). When the body and mind are talking: Interoception moderates embodied cognition. Experimental Psychology, 60, 255-259. doi:10.1027/1618-3169/a000194
27.
HauserD. J.SchwarzN. (2015). Elaborative thinking increases the impact of physical weight on importance judgments. Social Cognition, 33, 120-132. doi:10.1521/soco.2015.33.2.120
28.
JamesW. (1884). What is an emotion?Mind, 9, 188-205. doi:10.1093/mind/os-ix.34.188
29.
JohnsonD. J.WortmanJ.CheungF.HeinM.LucasR. E.DonnellanM. B.. . . NarrR. K. (2016). The effects of disgust on moral judgments: Testing moderators. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 640-647. doi:10.1177/1948550616654211
JostmannN. B.LakensD.SchubertT. W. (2009). Weight as an embodiment of importance. Psychological Science, 20, 1169-1174. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02426.x
32.
KasparK. (2013). A weighty matter: Heaviness influences the evaluation of disease severity, drug effectiveness, and side effects. PLoS ONE, 8, Article e78307. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078307
33.
LakoffG.JohnsonM. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
34.
LakoffG.JohnsonM. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York, NY: Basic Books.
35.
LandauM. J.MeierB. P.KeeferL. A. (2010). A metaphor-enriched social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 1045-1067. doi:10.1037/a0020970
36.
LeeS. W.SchwarzN. (2012). Bidirectionality, mediation, and moderation of metaphorical effects: The embodiment of social suspicion and fishy smells. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 737-749. doi:10.1037/a0029708
37.
LiljenquistK.ZhongC.GalinskyA. D. (2010). The smell of virtue: Clean scents promote reciprocity and charity. Psychological Science, 21, 381-383. doi:10.1177/0956797610361426
38.
LynottD.CorkerK. S.WortmanJ.ConnellL.DonnellanM. B.LucasR. E.O’BrienK. (2014). Replication of “experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth” by Williams and Bargh (2008). Social Psychology, 45, 216-222. doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000187
39.
MagniniV. P.KimS. (2016). The influences of restaurant menu font style, background color, and physical weight on consumers’ perceptions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 53, 42-48. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.11.001
40.
MeierB. P.SchnallS.SchwarzN.BarghJ. A. (2012). Embodiment in social psychology. Topics in Cognitive Science, 4, 705-716. doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01212.x
41.
NewellA.SimonH. A. (1972). Human problem solving. Oxford, England: Prentice Hall.
42.
NiedenthalP. M.BarsalouL. W.WinkielmanP.Krauth-GruberS.RicF. (2005). Embodiment in attitudes, social perception, and emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9, 184-211. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0903_1
43.
Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349, Article aac4716. doi:10.1126/science.aac4716
44.
PettyR. E.CacioppoJ. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. New York, NY: Springer.
45.
PettyR. E.WegenerD. T.WhiteP. H. (1998). Flexible correction processes in social judgment: Implications for persuasion. Social Cognition, 16, 93-113. doi:10.1521/soco.1998.16.1.93
46.
Piqueras-FiszmanB.HarrarV.AlcaideJ.SpenceC. (2011). Does the weight of the dish influence our perception of food?Food Quality and Preference, 22, 753-756. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2011.05.009
47.
Piqueras-FiszmanB.SpenceC. (2012). The weight of the container influences expected satiety, perceived density, and subsequent expected fullness. Appetite, 58, 559-562. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2011.12.021
48.
RabeloA. L. A.KellerV. N.PilatiR.WichertsJ. M. (2015). No effect of weight on judgments of importance in the moral domain and evidence of publication bias from a meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 10, Article e0134808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134808
49.
SchnallS.HaidtJ.CloreG. L.JordanA. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1096-1109. doi:10.1177/0146167208317771
50.
SchneiderI. K.ParzuchowskiM.WojciszkeB.SchwarzN.KooleS. L. (2014). Weighty data: Importance information influences estimated weight of digital information storage devices. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 1536. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01536
51.
SchneiderI. K.RutjensB. T.JostmannN. B.LakensD. (2011). Weighty matters importance literally feels heavy. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 474-478. doi:10.1177/1948550610397895
52.
SchwarzN. (2011). Feelings-as-information theory. In Van LangeP.KruglanskiA.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (Vol I., pp. 289-308). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
53.
SchwarzN.CloreG. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 513-523. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.45.3.513
54.
SlepianM. L.MasicampoE. J.ToosiN. R.AmbadyN. (2012). The physical burdens of secrecy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 619-624. doi:10.1037/a0027598
55.
SmithE. R.SeminG. R. (2004). Socially situated cognition: Cognition in its social context. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 36, 53-117. doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(04)36002-8
56.
StanovichK. E.WestR. F. (2000). Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 645-665. doi:10.1017/s0140525x00003435
Tool. (2001). Lateralus. On Lateralus [CD]. New York: Volcano Entertainment.
59.
WegenerD. T.PettyR. E. (1995). Flexible correction processes in social judgment: The role of naïve theories in corrections for perceived bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 36-51. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.1.36
60.
WegenerD. T.PettyR. E. (1997). The flexible correction model: The role of naive theories of bias in bias correction. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 141-208. doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60017-9
61.
WellsG. L.PettyR. E. (1980). The effects of over head movements on persuasion: Compatibility and incompatibility of responses. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 1, 219-230. doi:10.1207/s15324834basp0103_2
WortmanJ.DonnellanM. B.LucasR. E. (2014). Can physical warmth (or coldness) predict trait loneliness? A replication of Bargh and Shalev (2012). Archives of Scientific Psychology, 2, 13-19. doi:10.1037/arc0000007
64.
ZannaM. P.CooperJ. (1974). Dissonance and the pill: An attribution approach to studying the arousal properties of dissonance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 703-709. doi:10.1037/h0036651
65.
ZillmanD. (1978). Attribution and misattribution of excitatory reactions. In HarveyJ. H.IckesW. I.KiddR. F. (Eds.), New directions in attribution research (Vol. 2, pp. 335-368). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
