If your posture leans to the right, on the other hand, your estimate increases. If you lean left you also think the Eiffel Tower is shorter than if you lean to the right. You think there is less alcohol in whiskey, and you will guess that Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has fewer grandchildren than if you leaned to the right. This is a real study soon to be published in the scientific journal Psychological Science.
The researchers, who were from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, used a Wii platform to measure the amount of leaning and they asked the study volunteers, who were university students, to stand up straight. A screen told them they were standing up straight even when they were leaning, apparently to prevent any bias.
Apparently the take home is that your posture can effect your decision making. Or, is it a conspiracy against lefties to paint them as pessimistic downers (do lefties even lean left)? Is it a public service announcement for better posture? And how, pray tell, would this influence estimates regarding the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Image: Flickr/McPig
James
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:23 AMsounds like complete bollocks to me. How can any of this be researched fairly? It would take a massive amount of test subjects to attain any kind of correlation here. We’d be talking hundreds of thousands.
deadnotsleeping
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:41 AMYeah I’m sure Scientific american and the peer reviewed journal Psychological Science regularly publish fakie science articles like this just to make sure we’re still paying attention
Hope
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 1:18 PMthankyou James for your insightful tip that it would take a ‘massive amount’ of subjects. With such an advanced understanding of psychological research terms, I am not at all surprised that you are expecting a mere ‘correlation’ of the data. Perhaps the results section of the original report would provide you with the p values, t tests and ANOVAs that you require to make an informed comment on what is ‘bollocks’. The sample size of a study is carefully chosen as to avoid statistical type I or type II errors.
Jack
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:52 AMYou lean on your stronger leg (I think – don’t remember) so leftys stronger leg would be tue left, making them lean to the right.
However my lean is fucked because of my knee surgeries, I change every 2 mins :P
Someone correct me on the lean thing? Please :)
Penmonicus
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:38 PMMaybe I lean to the left all day because of my desk setup. Could explain my shitty mood of late.
Or, y’know: it could be the shittiness.
Ozoneocean
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 1:57 PMIdeologically, I lean to the left. Physically, I have no idea.