A quick and simple way to influence others:
is study reports the results of three field experiments which demonstrate that asking someone how they feel, having them verbally respond, and then acknowledging that response, facilitates compliance with a charitable request. The findings are discussed with respect to the influence of public commitments on behavioral consistency. Before you ask anyone for a donation, you first ask them how they're feeling. After they tell you they're feeling good, and you tell them you're glad they're feeling good, they'll be more…
1 min read
This Is How Your Posture Affects How Powerful You Feel
ree experiments explored whether hierarchical role and body posture have independent or interactive effects on the main outcomes associated with power: action in behavior and abstraction in thought. Although past research has found that being in a powerful role and adopting an expansive body posture can each enhance a sense of power, two experiments showed that when individuals were placed in high- or low-power roles while adopting an expansive or constricted posture, only posture affected the implicit activation of power,…
1 min read
How to easily appear more powerful:
status expectations affect how we interpret interruption in conversation? Two experiments examined how interrupters and their targets are perceived in same- and mixed-gender dyads. In Experiment 1, participants listened to a brief audiotaped conversation in which one person interrupted the other five times. In Experiment 2, four confederates (two men and two women) systematically interrupted naïve participants while discussing an article. In general, interrupters gained in status and targets of interruption lost status. In addition, participants who were interrupted…
1 min read
Do we think people with beards are more trustworthy?
is research analyses the effects of endorsers' beardedness (i.e., the state of being bearded) on their perceived credibility and consumers' purchase intention for various categories of products. According to Ohanian (1990), credibility is a construct with three sub-dimensions: attractiveness, the degree to which the source's physical appearance and/or its perceived personality is appealing; expertise, the extent to which the communicator is perceived as a source of valid assertions; and trustworthiness, the degree of confidence aroused in perceivers. Recent research has…
2 minutes
Lie to Me: Can the tv show teach you to detect lies?
ie to Me viewers were no better at distinguishing truths from lies but were more likely than control participants to misidentify honest interviewees as deceptive." The new television series Lie to Me portrays a social scientist solving crimes through his ability to read nonverbal communication. Promotional materials claim the content is based on actual science. Participants (N = 108) watched an episode of Lie to Me, a different drama, or no program and then judged a series of honest and…
1 min read
How to be more charismatic during presentations:
e purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of imagery in a leader's speech on listeners' perceptions of the leader's charisma. A former US president's inaugural address was rewritten to create low and high imagery versions, and audio recordings of the two speeches were made. Participants were randomly assigned to high or low speech imagery conditions. After listening to the speech, they provided ratings on various summary leadership measures. The high imagery speech resulted in higher ratings of…
1 min read
You Assume That Attractive People Are Similar To You
vestigated whether people attribute the same personality-trait characteristics to culturally desirable others as they attribute to themselves. 66 undergraduates were exposed to slides depicting facial photographs of college-aged females whose physical attractiveness was systematically varied (high, average, low). They were asked to rate both themselves and each target on an array of positive, neutral, and negative trait descriptors. Ss assumed that greater similarity existed between themselves and attractive others than between themselves and less attractive others. Findings are paralleled on…
1 min read
How To Improve Any Presentation
actice in front of a large audience: Public speaking texts and instructors typically encourage students to practice speeches as a means of managing anxiety and enhancing performance. The effectiveness of various speech practice methods has received little attention. Participants completed the PRCA-24 and PRPSA-34, and indicated the number of times they used a variety of practice methods to prepare for a speech. Upon completing this questionnaire, participants delivered a videotaped speech. Students who practiced their speech before an audience received…
1 min read
