Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence by Thalma Lobel

Author:Thalma Lobel [Lobel, Thalma]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2014-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Pick On Someone Your Own Size

Even though we perceive powerful people as taller than average, our impression of their height depends also on how powerful we feel in comparison. Our subjective impression of height (for both ourselves and those we observe) depends on a power struggle within our minds.

To test this phenomenon, researchers divided participants into two groups and then manipulated how powerful or powerless they felt.9 Those in one group were asked to write about a past experience where they had power over someone else; those in the other group were asked to write about an experience in which they felt at the mercy of others. The researchers then presented the groups with a picture of a person and asked them to estimate that person’s height. Those who had recalled a powerful experience tended to underestimate the height of the person in the picture, and those who had recalled a powerless experience tended to overestimate the person’s height. In other words, for those who felt powerful, the person in the picture seemed shorter, and vice versa.

In the second experiment, the researchers directly manipulated the experience of power. They invited the participants to the laboratory in pairs and asked them to play the Dictator Game, in which there are two roles: the officer (or dictator) and the receiver. The officer is given ten dollars and exerts sole discretion over how the money is to be divided between himself or herself and the receiver. The officer therefore has full control over the situation. The receiver is completely powerless. Participants were randomly assigned to these roles.

Following the game, participants were asked to estimate their partners’ weight and height. Just as in the first study, those who were assigned the role of the dictator and therefore felt powerful underestimated the weight and the height of their partners. In contrast, those who had the misfortune to be the lowly receivers, and therefore felt powerless, saw their respective dictators as larger and taller than they really were.

Similar studies have shown that perceived power affects how we think of our own height as well. In two experiments, researchers manipulated how powerful participants felt, either by asking them to recall a powerful or powerless event or by placing them in a business simulation in which they were assigned either a powerful role (the manager) or a powerless role (an employee).10 Participants were then given a pole that was specifically adjusted to be twenty inches longer than each participant’s height. The participant was then asked to indicate his or her own height on that pole. Those in the high-power group estimated themselves as taller than those in the low-power group.

The more powerful we feel, the taller we perceive ourselves and the shorter we perceive others to be. Once again, it’s clear that physical perception, even of an objective attribute such as height, is often influenced by our emotional and mental states.

No doubt you’ve seen a man in an enormous sport-utility vehicle sitting high above traffic and wondered what he might be compensating for.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.