Sitting up straight in your chair isn’t just good for your posture – it also gives you more confidence in your own thoughts, according to a new study.
Researchers found that people who were told to sit up straight were more likely to believe thoughts they wrote down while in that posture concerning whether they were qualified for a job.
On the other hand, those who were slumped over their desks were less likely to accept these written-down feelings about their own qualifications.
The results show how our body posture can affect not only what others think about us, but also how we think about ourselves, said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
Science Daily: Body Posture Affects Confidence In Your Own Thoughts, Study Finds
October 5, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Common sense, really, since postures are fundamental in fight/flight and other non-verbal response. People intested in this kind of thing should take a look at fundamental non-verbal neurological responses and experiment in moving from one sort of posture to another. That is, practice the transition between postures. There will be some material providing specifc procedures for this in the new book I’m working on with Taylor Ellwood. For those who want to pursue this on their own, the Center for Non-Verbal Studies is back online with the Online Nonverbal Dictionary: http://center-for-nonverbal-studies.org/6101.html I can’t recommend this site highly enough.