magazine issue 4 2014 / Issue 20

From the Editors: Commentary for Embodiment Special Issue

Wellington, New Zealand, is considered a windy city (twice as windy as Chicago). It is also a hilly city. Victoria University, where I spend my day, is on the top of one of those hills and while that means I have a wonderful view, there are times I despise the walk up from town. Particularly the last bit (the ‘final insult’ as I think of it), from where I can almost see my office. Thanks to ... / more

Grasping the grounded nature of mental simulation

• written by Ryan Elder & Aradhna Krishna
• edited by Norbert Schwarz

“Mental simulation”—interacting mentally with an object—is an important part of our daily interactions.  We review literature that provides evidence that humans mentally simulate automatically in preparation for object interactions.  We also discuss our research showing how simple object orientation can change mental simulation and thus purchase intention.  This review should provide practitioners and curious intellectuals a primer for understanding this fascinating area of human thought. Our lives are filled with repetitive behavior. Take, for example, your... / more

Word of mouth: How our tongue shapes our preferences, and why you should eat popcorn in the cinema

• written by Sascha Topolinski
• edited by Spike Lee

Are you sick of banner ads, commercials, and brand names depicted everywhere? You might think this way of advertising is pointless since it will not influence you anyway. However, psychological research has identified how branding hacks into your mind and how you can prevent this. Think of the last time you interacted with a person wearing brand-name clothes. For instance talking with those “cool” people with the RayBan pilot-glasses, where you do not see their eyes but only this little... / more

Manipulating the body, measuring the body, and tinkering in the name of Psychology

• written by Thomas Schubert
• edited by Spike Lee

New scientific approaches often rise with the availability of new methods, and can stall when those methods do not evolve further. New methods can be particularly influential if they allow a wide range of application without demanding a lot of resources. In the hands of creative graduate students, such methods can quickly turn into productive tools. The field of embodiment, the topic of this special issue, is no difference. In this... / more

Judging a book by its cover: Prior knowledge determines the effect of embodied cues.

• written by Jesse Chandler
• edited by Norbert Schwarz

Research has shown that physical experiences can influence metaphorically related judgments. For example, the experience of physical weight influences estimates of value and importance. Careful examination of existing evidence suggests that how much knowledge people have about a target of a judgment determines whether the experience of physical weight influences that judgment. Three studies directly test this hypothesis, finding that participants evaluated a book as more important when it was heavy (due to a concealed weight), but only... / more

Seeing mountains in molehills: Embodied visual perception of the environment

• written by Shana Cole & Emily Balcetis
• edited by Simone Schnall

You have likely experienced the phenomenon. Perhaps it occurred on the walk from the train after an exhausting day at the office. Or maybe you noticed it on the uphill trek to class while lugging a backpack stuffed with textbooks. That hill looming in front of you—surmountable most days and probably no more than a few degrees incline —right now looks more like Mount Everest. Likewise, the six-block walk from the train appears to stretch for miles. The... / more

What can metaphors tell us about personality?

• written by Adam Fetterman & Michael Robinson
• edited by Brian Meier

Our language is filled with metaphors (Gibbs, 1994). We have “bright” ideas, try to stay “balanced”, and feel “close” to others, but sometimes feel “down”, have “dark” thoughts, and “explode” with rage. What is the purpose of such language? 

According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980; 1999), metaphors allow us to understand abstract thoughts and feelings that cannot be directly seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. Stated a different way, we may speak metaphorically because...

More than meets the eye: Physical sensations influence first impressions

• written by Michael Slepian
• edited by Brian Meier

People are special. Person perception is quite different from rock perception, for example. Geologists, those with a rock in their shoe, and pet rock owners aside, the perception of a rock is often merely the perception of a collection of lines and surfaces. Yet people are not simply collections of lines and surfaces. People have inner worlds such as mental states and... / more