Where we think, too

“Scientists using seat-of-the-pants research – literally – say how something feels to you can affect how you act,” Randolph Schmid reports for Associated Press. “In one experiment, for example, 86 people took part in negotiations over a new car with a sticker price of $16,500 [U.S.]. Some were seated on hard wooden chairs. Others had comfy padded seats. After their first offers were rejected, the participants made a second proposal for the car. People on stiff wooden chairs took a hard line in the deal, raising their offered price by $896.50. But the relaxed folks in soft chairs were willing to spend an extra $1,243.60. The hardness, the researchers concluded, produced strictness and rigidity in the negotiation. ‘We’re not just a brain in a jar; our body is fundamentally tied to our understanding of the world,’ said Joshua Ackerman of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a co-author of the study.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/this-is-wisdom-hierarchy-matters-trash-hits-the-worlds-end/article1621921/