She Stoops to Conquer? How Posture Interacts With Self-Objectification and Status to Impact Women’s Affect and Performance

Abstract

Research suggests that posture exerts powerful affective and cognitive influences, although recent studies have indicated that these embodiment effects are moderated by gender. We examined two sociocultural factors that may contribute to the effects of postural feedback in women: self-objectification and power. Across a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design, 80 female undergraduates completed various cognitive tasks and self-report measures after having been in an upright or slouched posture, seated in either a (powerful) throne or child’s chair, and wearing either a formfitting (objectifying) tank top or loose sweatshirt. The results showed that posture had the predicted influence on mood, with those seated upright reporting more positive mood than those seated in a slouched position. For the cognitive tasks, our findings were more complex and, due to low power, are best considered preliminary. Participants who were seated upright in a child’s chair while wearing a sweatshirt attempted the highest number of math items compared to those in the other conditions, supporting our prediction that postural benefits would be greatest in a context where power cues were gender-appropriate and self-objectification effects were attenuated. On a measure of satisfaction with performance, our findings suggest that self-objectification outweighed the power manipulation, leading to poorer outcomes when a seated position emphasized sexualized features of the body. Taken together, our results suggest that embodiment effects appear to be impacted by contextual cues, perhaps particularly for women.