How the Body Knows Its Mind_The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel

by Sian Beilock

  To demonstrate the physical reality of creative metaphors, researchers at Cornell University constructed a box out of PVC pipe and cardboard that measured five feet on each side. Thus the box could comfortably contain an individual seated inside. The researchers placed the box in their laboratory and asked volunteers to complete ten compound-word puzzles like the one above while sitting either inside or outside the box. To make it seem reasonable that people were being asked to sit in a box, the volunteers were told that the scientists were studying how different work environments affect thinking. Amazingly, people sitting outside the box solved more of the word puzzles than those sitting inside the box or when there was no box at all.

  The ten word puzzles that the researchers used were:

  1. Print–Berry–Bird ______________

  2. High–District–House ______________

  3. Fish–Mine–Rush ______________

  4. Basket–Eight–Snow ______________

  5. Mouse–Bear–Sand ______________

  6. Cadet–Capsule–Ship ______________

  7. Fur–Rack–Tail ______________

  8. Hound–Pressure–Shot ______________

  9. Flake–Mobile–Cone ______________

  10. Safety–Cushion–Point ______________

  Answers:

  1. Blue

  2. School

  3. Gold

  4. Ball

  5. Trap

  6. Space

  7. Coat

  8. Blood

  9. Snow

  10. Pin

  People were also more likely to come up with clever captions for pictures and to generate more unique ideas about unfamiliar objects when walking freely than when sitting down or walking in a box formation.5 So next time you are trying to come up with the clever caption for the cartoon that will be printed in the New Yorker, get up and take a walk. It might be just the movement you need to bring that amazing caption to mind.

  When we read something confusing or have to find a solution to a difficult problem, our first instinct is often to sit down, to stop whatever we are doing in order to concentrate. We rarely consider what we are doing with our body. But being sedentary may be the worst thing you can do. The literal and abstract meanings of creative metaphors have become so interwoven that these metaphors have taken on a physical reality of their own. That’s why acting out creative metaphors can give rise to novel ideas. Literally thinking outside or without physical constraints (walking outdoors, pacing around) may help facilitate new connections between distant ideas, which is what creativity is all about. Indeed my colleagues and I have joked that one of the best things about becoming a faculty member is not having our own office or a (somewhat) bigger paycheck than we got when we were graduate students, but the fact that during class we no longer are confined to our seat at the seminar table. We can walk around as we think; we can use the fluid movements of our body to help free our mind from constraints.

  We look to our physical experiences to create reality. Perhaps that’s why Chinese exercise balls (otherwise known as Baoding balls) became a staple on executives’ desks. Most people think of them as a stress reliever or just something to do with their hands when they are on the phone or in a meeting, but those small shiny silver balls that people move from hand to hand likely serve a much bigger function: improving our creative thinking. Physically moving those Baoding balls from one hand to the other may help us think about an idea on “one hand and then another.” Dynamically coordinating our hand movements can facilitate the mental mechanics of creative problem solving, helping us to see a problem from multiple perspectives. The unexpected benefit of creative thinking that comes from moving our body reveals the importance of physical actions to improve performance at work. We live in an age when it is easy to be static, at our desk, on the elevator, or in a meeting, but being motionless can inhibit our thinking.

  Our actions also affect our ability to take charge and get what we want. Being able to achieve at work, to be productive, is really about sending your brain the signal “I am in charge. I feel good, go,” says Dana Carney, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.6 One way to send that message is to adjust the body. Carney and her colleagues Amy Cuddy and Andy Yap have found that, when people hold open, expansive postures, otherwise known as power poses, they put themselves in a better state of mind. These power poses may also increase the level of testosterone circulating in the brain and body. Testosterone, a sex hormone, is often a culprit in doping scandals in sports, when athletes pump their body full of testosterone as a quick way to improve muscle mass and strength. But this hormone affects the brain too. Increases in testosterone have been linked to increases in confidence, attention, and memory. Testosterone is also involved in competitiveness and risk taking, giving you the confidence to approach and solve problems. When you have to go out on a ledge to offer a novel solution to a problem, something as simple as how you hold your body can help convince you and those around you that your viewpoint has merit. Carney and her colleagues have found that a one-minute power pose leads to roughly the same amount of testosterone increase that most people experience when they win a game.7 In short, power poses can make the difference between holding your own in a meeting and coming out on top or succumbing to a bad deal.

  You can tell a lot about how a person is feeling from how she holds her body. People who feel anxious tend to move their body in less natural ways and lean away from their interaction partners, even when they swear they are not feeling anxious. It’s hard to lie about how we are feeling when our body gives us away.8

  Surprisingly, body cues can often be more important than facial expressions in indicating how a person is feeling. A few years ago, a group of Princeton University psychologists put together three groups of photographs of professional tennis players like Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray, taken after they had either won or lost a major point in a high-stakes match: one group contained full-body shots with faces showing, the second group contained face shots without bodies showing, and the third group contained body shots without showing faces. When the researchers asked volunteers to guess what emotions the tennis players were experiencing at the time of the photo, they discovered that viewers were much more accurate at guessing the players’ emotions when they could see the players’ body, with or without also seeing their face.9 People physically communicate what they are feeling not just with their facial expressions but with their entire body. Perhaps that’s why we tend to be so interested in the postures people display in situations—especially competitive ones—ranging from sports to the business world.

  After the Jamaican sprinting legend Usain Bolt set a new Olympic record in the men’s 100-meter sprint in the 2012 Summer Olympics, he stretched one arm to the sky as if he were about to send a lightning bolt upward. This open body posture was immediately copied around the world and sent a strong signal about who was in charge on the track. Mario Balotelli, a soccer player for the Italian National Team, struck a pose after he scored a goal at the 2012 European Championship. Picture a mohawked, bare-chested striker, with a wide stance and his arms held out wide and flexed downward at his side, fists clenched, and a look on his face that says, “I can score at will.” His pose reflected who was in charge and also likely helped him feel at the top of his game. It’s easy to find photos on the web of adults, kids, and even pets mimicking former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow’s signature pose: bending down on one knee as if you are about to propose to the love of your life and then, with an elbow resting on your bent knee, flexing your arm and clinching your hand into a fist. Tebow may have been thanking God for a good play, but his open stance also sent a powerful message to his brain about his ability to dominate (albeit, short-lived) on the field. Finally, consider the wide-legged stance that Donald Trump often holds when he is talking to contestants on his TV show, The Apprentice, or merely giving a television interview about a new development in the works. Taking up a lot of space with your bo
dy sends signals about your confidence and dominance. By simply assuming a pose, you can change how you are thinking and feeling.

  Expansive, open postures tend to increase our feelings of power and control. They can even enhance our ability to project power and confidence to others. There is more to how we hold ourselves than meets the eye. Here are a few body position tips from the power posing research, whether you are in a meeting, pitching to a client, negotiating on the phone, or by yourself; they capitalize on the idea of spreading your limbs and taking up a lot of space:

  If you are standing at your desk, stand tall and keep your hands wide apart.

  Rest your arm on the chair next to you during a meeting. It opens up your body, allowing you to take up more space.

  Put your hands behind your head with your elbows pointed outward.

  Uncross your legs, even prop them up in front of you on a desk or table. This helps you take up additional space and creates a mental and physical feeling of expansiveness. Try this technique when you are on the phone as a way to feel larger physically and emotionally, more confident and assertive.

  No matter what pose you choose, wear comfortable clothes that aren’t too constraining. Whether you are answering email, on an important call, or in a heated meeting, you want to feel that you can stretch out and open up physically and mentally.

  Before you assume your most expansive pose, a caveat: It’s true that expansive body postures lead to feelings of power, which can be a good thing. However, as we know from history and politics, power can lead to dishonest behaviors—cheating, stealing, and other forms of corruption. One study found that people who routinely struck expansive poses (with legs widespread and arms out wide with their hands resting on their hips), as opposed to contracted ones (standing with their legs and arms crossed), were more likely to keep money that they were “accidentally” overpaid. People sitting at a desk in an expansive pose were also more likely to cheat on a test than those in a more contracted posture. Even those who drove cars with a more expansive driver’s seat (allowing them to spread out when they were behind the wheel) were more likely to be illegally double-parked on New York City streets than drivers with smaller seats.10

  The take-away is that expanding your body can be a powerful psychological booster. Just be careful not to wield this power for the wrong reason.

  Remembering

  Because there is such a close connection between physical and mental activity, moving the body can change how you think. Whether you’re moving your eyes, walking freely, or even assuming different postures, your body can alter your mind and influence what others think of you. Just as dancers use their body in order to remember and communicate their role, actors recognize the value of the body for communicating ideas and for memorizing scripts. When actors learn their lines, they don’t just concentrate on the words on the page but also imagine the moment-to-moment actions of the character uttering them. Actions help infuse memories with an emotional charge that makes them last. Our previous experiences being in the world affect how we understand what we see, hear, and read about.

  Though actors rarely consider memorization as a defining feature of what they do, the ability to remember large amounts of dialogue and effortlessly deliver their lines on cue is a pretty amazing feat. A nonactor might imagine that learning a script involves days, weeks, or even months of rote memorization, but actors don’t work that way. As one professional put it, “Most of the time I memorize by magic—that is, I don’t really memorize. There is no effort involved. There seems to be no process involved: It just happens. One day early on, I know the lines.”11

  How does this work? One of the greatest mysteries of the human mind is how we remember information so that we can later recall it on cue. This is something most people struggle with, not just actors. In school, students spend a lot of time committing information to memory for important exams; lawyers grapple with memorizing an opening or closing argument so that they can deliver it smoothly and convincingly in the courtroom; and executives must commit to memory key elements of presentations to boards, customers, and employees to make sure their pitch goes off without a hitch. But actors memorize their lines and go “off book” by using the body as a tool. They try to actively experience the words of the character they are playing, which often involves connecting a specific dialogue to a specific action. Studies have shown that dialogue spoken while performing an action, like walking across a stage, is more readily remembered than are lines unaccompanied by action. Even months after a final performance, actors recalled lines accompanied by movement better than lines spoken while sitting still.12

  Why is this active experience so important for committing information to memory? Consider the following situation: A character walks across the stage, picks up a bottle, and remarks, “This is how I solve my problems.” The actor knows why the character is saying what he is saying, which affects how he walks toward the bottle and even how he grabs it. Whether the character is going to take a big gulp from the bottle, throw it at another character, or pour the contents into the sink changes his actions. The bottle represents the meaning of the situation, and the meaning of the situation constrains what actions he will perform. The opposite is also true: how the character handles the bottle constrains the meaning of the situation and the words that he might utter. It would be odd if an actor remarked that the bottle contained a prized and very expensive wine and then threw the bottle in the trash. When actors later retrieve a scenario from memory, they recall both the dialogue and their actions. Because the particular actions they performed limit the range of possible dialogue, they are better able to remember their lines. The specificity of an actor’s sensory and motor experience aids recall of the literal words. Memory is grounded in the body.13

  It’s no secret that, as we get older, our ability to remember specific bits of information decreases—a major source of frustration for older folks (and those around them). But something as simple as taking an acting class that pushes us to become active experiencers in daily life can help combat memory problems. Indeed seniors who took a month-long acting class had a better memory than those who participated in an art appreciation class, precisely because the acting class taught them to be active experiencers. People took the strategies they learned in the acting class and applied them in their everyday lives, using movement as an extra hook for remembering all sorts of things.14

  Whether you are giving the wedding toast in front of two hundred of your closest friends and family, making an important speech to colleagues, or simply recalling how many kids your boss has, use your body to aid your recall. Practice picking up a glass as you prepare your toast, incorporate hand gestures into your speech, index the number of your boss’s kids on your fingers. That way, when all eyes are on you and you have to remember your lines, your body will be in a position to do some of the remembering for you. Memory isn’t confined to what goes on from the neck up; your entire body plays a powerful role in the memory process.

  Here are two more memorization tips you can use, whether at school, in the office, or on the stage:

  Test yourself. Practice recalling the information you are going to need for that test or pitch to a client as a way to try to learn the material. We rarely think of tests as learning events, but a wealth of studies shows that they are. Testing seems to help us load information into memory in a number of ways: it helps us relate what we already know to what we are learning so that we have many different hooks by which to retrieve information at a later time; it helps us mentally organize what we are learning; and it helps us figure out what we still need to learn and pay attention to in subsequent study sessions.15

  Spread out your practice sessions. Whether it’s for a test or for a big presentation, at one time or another most of us have left our preparation to the last minute. While cramming for a test is better than not studying at all and can help you recall some information in the short term, when you distribute your attempts to commit information to memory
over time (called distributed learning), you are more likely to remember information in the long term.16 This is because when we put more space between our learning episodes, we have to work harder to remember the information each time—which helps us better commit it to memory.17

  Our body helps us remember information and helps us communicate with others. Hand gestures, which we focus on in the next chapter, in particular are a frequent aid in conveying information to others. We use them to give directions, signal how we are feeling, and provide added meaning and emphasis to our spoken words. Yet we gesture even when no one is watching, such as when we’re on the phone. How we move our body provides a hidden window into our mind. But our body movements can also change our mind.

  CHAPTER 5

  Body Language

  HOW OUR HANDS HELP US THINK AND COMMUNICATE

  We Think with Our Hands

  On the evening of October 15, 2008, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama took the stage at Hofstra University in New York for the third and final debate of the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. With less than three weeks until election day, it was the candidates’ last chance to get their message out on the national stage. McCain, who was trailing Obama by roughly 8 points in the national polls,1 started out aggressively, challenging Obama on everything from his politics to his character.

  Obama had expected a heated debate; even though he was ahead in the race, the pressure was on him too. A few days earlier, on the campaign trail in Holland, Ohio, the Democratic nominee had had a run-in with Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, a tall, balding man with a booming voice who confronted Obama about his small business tax policy. “Joe” remarked that he was about to buy the company he worked for, a company making more than $250,000 a year. He was concerned that Obama would tax him more if he acquired the business. Media circles were instantly captivated by Joe’s challenge. Overnight “Joe the plumber” became a household phrase. As it turned out, Joe wasn’t even licensed as a plumber in the state of Ohio, nor did he have any immediate plans to buy the plumbing company that employed him.2 But none of that mattered. Obama was going to have to address Joe’s concerns head-on in the debate.