(Press-News.org) After the huge 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the chairman of BP referred to the victims of the spill as the "small people." He explained it as awkward word choice by a non-native speaker of English, but the authors of a new paper published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, wondered if there was something real behind it. In their study, they found that people who feel powerful tend to overestimate their own height—they feel physically larger than they actually are.
"Maybe there's a physical experience that goes along with being powerful," says Jack A. Goncalo of Cornell University, who cowrote the paper with Michelle M. Duguid of Washington University. "For people who are less powerful, maybe other people and objects loom larger, and for the powerful everything else just seems smaller." Plenty of research has shown that taller people are more likely to acquire power; taller people make more money, on average, and are more likely to be promoted. But our research is the first to show the reverse may also be true power also makes people feel taller.
In one experiment, subjects came to the lab in pairs. First they had their heights measured. Then they were given a leadership aptitude test and told that, based on their feedback, they would each be assigned to play the role of the manager or the employee. They were given fake feedback, then randomly assigned a role. After that, each person filled out a questionnaire with personal information, including eye color and height. People who had been told they would be the manager, with complete control over the work process and power to evaluate the employee, said they were taller than the actual measurement. The subject who had been told they would be the employee gave a height that was more or less the same as their real height.
Other experiments found similar results—that people who feel powerful overestimate their height. So maybe Carl-Henric Svanberg really did feel taller than the people affected by the Gulf oil spill. The results may also explain why diminutive leaders might still behave like people twice their height—they actually feel taller.
"Given that height is associated with power, raising your height may make you feel powerful," Goncalo says—which helps explain the continuing popularity of high heels and offices on the top floor.
###
For more information about this study, please contact: Michelle M. Duguid, Jack A. Goncalo at duguid@wustl.edu; jag97@cornell.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Living Large : The Powerful Overestimate Their Own Height" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.
Powerful people feel taller than they are
2012-01-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
To 'think outside the box,' think outside the box
2012-01-25
Want to think outside the box? Try actually thinking outside of a box. In a study to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers had students think up solutions to problems while acting out various metaphors about creative thinking and found that the instructions actually worked.
The authors of the new paper were inspired by metaphors about creativity found in boardrooms to movie studios to scientific laboratories around the world and previous linkages established between mind and body. ...
Cognac Wellerlane Attends the Latino Show
2012-01-25
Long Island Exchange Columnist Cognac Wellerlane attended the Latino Show, an event uniting fashion with members of New York City's Latino community. The one-of-a-kind gathering attracted many celebrities and influential members of the fashion industry, such as established designers and models. One of the main goals of the event was to bring together residents from Colombia, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic.
Another goal for the event was to welcome the launch of the new Latino Show Magazine. Among those who attended was the manager of Blue Star Jets luxury aircrafts, ...
Taking moments to enjoy life helps patients make better health decisions
2012-01-25
NEW YORK -- The experience of daily positive affect -- a mild, happy feeling -- and self-affirmation helps some patients with chronic diseases, including coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and asthma, make better decisions about their health.
These findings are detailed in three studies of 756 patients published online in the Jan. 23 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine -- the first large, randomized controlled trials to show that people can use positive affect and self-affirmation to help them make and sustain behavior change. The research was funded ...
Working moms: Looking for more than a paycheck
2012-01-25
Louisville, AZ—Working mothers may be busy, but they like it that way. A recent study of employed moms finds that most would work even if they didn't have to, but they're also looking for new ways to negotiate the demands of mothering and the pressures to be an "ideal" employee.
Unlike earlier research, the study – published today in the February issue of Gender & Society – finds that many employed mothers emphasize the benefits they, and their children, receive from their paid work. Both married and single mothers said they found more fulfillment (and gained self confidence) ...
Team finds new way to image brain tumors and predict recurrence
2012-01-25
After people with low-grade glioma, a type of brain cancer, undergo neurosurgery to remove the tumors, they face variable odds of survival — depending largely on how rapidly the cancer recurs. Even though their doctors monitor the tumor closely with sophisticated imaging, it is difficult to determine with certainty whether cancer has returned in a more malignant state that requires aggressive treatment.
Now a team from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has developed methods to reveal a molecular marker in tissue samples from brain tumors that has been ...
Stanford aero-engineers debut open-source fluid dynamics design application
2012-01-25
Each fall at technical universities across the world, a new crop of aeronautical and astronautical engineering graduate students settle in for the work that will consume them for the next several years. For many, their first experience in these early months is not with titanium or aluminum or advanced carbon-fiber materials that are the stuff of airplanes, but with computer code.
Thanks to a team of engineers in the Aerospace Design Lab at Stanford University, however, those days of coding may soon go the way of the biplane. At a recent demonstration, the Stanford team ...
Climatic warming-induced change in timings of 24 seasonal divisions in China since 1960
2012-01-25
The Twenty-four Solar Terms are ancient Chinese terms used for about 2000 years. They describe 24 stages or timings associated with seasonal changes in phenology and agricultural activity throughout a year. Qian et al. from the Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for East Asia, Chinese Academy of Sciences, quantitatively defined the somewhat 'astronomic' term for the first time, based on modern temperature records. This facilitated an investigation of changes in the climatic Solar Terms under global warming over the past half-century. Their results were based ...
Egypt, Hungary, France, USA, China, Persia, England and Russia: A World of Art and Antiques at Clarke Auction on January 29, 2012 in Larchmont, New York
2012-01-25
Clarke Auction quickly follows its small but very successful Jan. 8th sale with a great fresh-to-market sale on Sunday, Jan. 29th at 2 PM in Larchmont, NY.
The art originates from all corners of the world including a delightful and colorful oil by renowned Egyptian artist, Omar El-Nagdi ($10,000 - $15,00 auction estimate). From Hungary comes 4 abstract oils uncovered after 20 years in a New York storage room by Emory Ladanyi. Also in this auction is a collection of collages by Czech artist, Jiri Kolar from a local collector, and two illusionist oils by Russian artist ...
Generation X: How young adults deal with influenza
2012-01-25
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Only about one in five young adults in their late 30s received a flu shot during the 2009-2010 swine flu epidemic, according to a University of Michigan report that details the behavior and attitudes of Generation X.
But about 65 percent were at least moderately concerned about the flu, and nearly 60 percent said they were following the issue very or moderately closely.
Using survey data collected from approximately 3,000 young adults during the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza epidemic—the first serious infectious disease this group had ever experienced—The ...
Tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are biggest killers of Japanese adults
2012-01-25
Tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are biggest killers of Japanese adults
The life expectancy of a person born in Japan is among the highest in the world (82.9 years) yet tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are still the major risk factors for death among adults in Japan, emphasizing the need to reduce tobacco smoking and to improve ongoing programs designed to help people manage multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure, according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine.
In an analysis of available data led by Nayu Ikeda ...