Could sitting up straight boost your mood? Study suggests it might
By Health Correspondent
The way we sit could have more of an effect on how we feel and behave than we realise, according to new research from McGill University.
In a recent study, participants who sat upright reported more positive feelings and performed differently on a risk-taking task compared with those who were encouraged to slouch.
The effects were modest and the experiment took place in a laboratory, but researchers say the findings add to evidence that our bodies can influence our mood and behaviour.
Jorge Armony, professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at McGill and senior author of the study, said the results also raise interesting questions about how everyday environments might affect us.
A simple change to the way people sat
Armony and graduate student Soren Wainio-Theberge, who came up with the idea for the research and is a co-author of the study, recruited nearly 200 participants.
After some initial testing on a computer monitor, participants were asked to complete another task on a tablet, under the cover of testing a mobile application.
The researchers changed the way the tablet was positioned to influence how people sat.
DON'T MISS:
Good News Post
For some participants, the tablet was placed on a stand on an adjustable table, encouraging them to sit more upright.
For others, it was placed flat on a lower desk, prompting them to lean forward and adopt a more hunched posture.
The participants then completed a risk-taking test in which they could earn rewards by inflating a virtual balloon, but risked losing everything if it burst.
Those in the upright posture took greater risks and tended to earn greater rewards.
However, Armony said this did not necessarily mean they were simply being more impulsive.
“This suggests they were not acting more impulsively but rather were engaging in more effective risk-taking.”
The participants also completed a questionnaire about their feelings during the experiment.
Those in the upright group reported significantly stronger feelings of pride, which is associated with positive mood.
What posture can tell us about the mind
The findings add to a long-running area of research into whether the body's posture can influence the way we think and feel.
The McGill researchers designed their experiment to address some of the concerns surrounding earlier studies, including research into so-called "power poses".
Rather than telling participants which posture to adopt, the researchers influenced their posture through the environment without telling them that this was part of the experiment.
Good News Post
Most participants said afterwards that they had not realised their posture had been manipulated.
The researchers also used video software to measure participants' neck angles, providing an objective way of assessing how closely their posture matched the intended position.
The study does not suggest that changing your posture will dramatically transform your mood or decision-making.
But the researchers say the findings raise interesting questions about whether everyday features of our surroundings – such as the way we work at a desk or the design of our workplace – could have subtle effects on mood and behaviour.
In other words, something as ordinary as the way we sit could be doing a little more than simply keeping us comfortable.
“Manipulating posture implicitly through environmental constraints influences mood andrisk-taking behaviour”, by Soren Wainio-Theberge and Jorge Armony, was published in the British Journal of Psychology.
The research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
