The Effect of an Individual’s Mood on his or her Weather preferences
People have always wondered how the body and mind interacted. Some people believe that they did not interact at all. For example, Plato believed that the mind and the body were two separate entities (University of Richmond Department of Psychology, 2015). However, recently, there is evidence that a person’s body does influence his or her cognition. It is known as Embodied Cognition, which is built off Metaphor theory. Metaphor theory is the idea that human thoughts and sensory perception are linked to concrete and physical concepts. We ground our abstract ideas (love, hate, time, etc.) into concrete objects in order for us to understand them. Embodied Cognition suggests that …show more content…
Schneider, Rutjens, Jostmann, and Lakens (2011) studied the connection between weight and importance. Schneider et al. (2011) conducted two studies and asked participants to hold a book and estimate its weight. In their first study, 55 psychology undergraduates from a Dutch university participated and they were assigned an experimental condition. Half of the students are told that the book is an important book and the other half was not given any information about the book. They found that when told that the book is important and were able to hold the book, participants estimated higher weight. In their second study, they tested for various other explanations for the results in the first study and used a 3x2x2 mixed design. They asked participants to judge the weight of the book based on the perceived effort (information vs. effort vs. neutral) it would take to read the book, estimate the monetary value of the book (judgment type: weight vs. value), and estimate the weight of the book based solely on sight (perceptual input: holding vs. looking). There were a total of 12 groups. For the second study, 102 social sciences undergraduates from a Dutch university participated and were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions. Schneider et al. (2011) found that when individuals held the book and …show more content…
This could test if results are consistent and individuals continue to associate their mood with their weather preferences. A second possible future study could focus on location of participants in order to see if the area where participants grew up influenced their weather choices. Someone who was raised in California might have different weather preferences compared to someone who was raised in Ohio. A third possible study that could be conducted is to place participants in bright or dark rooms in order to see if external factors can affect individual’s mood and thus changing their weather preference. A baseline test would be conducted before the study. Then individuals would be selected randomly and placed in either a dark room with the laptop to complete the study or be placed in a brightly lit
People have always wondered how the body and mind interacted. Some people believe that they did not interact at all. For example, Plato believed that the mind and the body were two separate entities (University of Richmond Department of Psychology, 2015). However, recently, there is evidence that a person’s body does influence his or her cognition. It is known as Embodied Cognition, which is built off Metaphor theory. Metaphor theory is the idea that human thoughts and sensory perception are linked to concrete and physical concepts. We ground our abstract ideas (love, hate, time, etc.) into concrete objects in order for us to understand them. Embodied Cognition suggests that …show more content…
Schneider, Rutjens, Jostmann, and Lakens (2011) studied the connection between weight and importance. Schneider et al. (2011) conducted two studies and asked participants to hold a book and estimate its weight. In their first study, 55 psychology undergraduates from a Dutch university participated and they were assigned an experimental condition. Half of the students are told that the book is an important book and the other half was not given any information about the book. They found that when told that the book is important and were able to hold the book, participants estimated higher weight. In their second study, they tested for various other explanations for the results in the first study and used a 3x2x2 mixed design. They asked participants to judge the weight of the book based on the perceived effort (information vs. effort vs. neutral) it would take to read the book, estimate the monetary value of the book (judgment type: weight vs. value), and estimate the weight of the book based solely on sight (perceptual input: holding vs. looking). There were a total of 12 groups. For the second study, 102 social sciences undergraduates from a Dutch university participated and were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions. Schneider et al. (2011) found that when individuals held the book and …show more content…
This could test if results are consistent and individuals continue to associate their mood with their weather preferences. A second possible future study could focus on location of participants in order to see if the area where participants grew up influenced their weather choices. Someone who was raised in California might have different weather preferences compared to someone who was raised in Ohio. A third possible study that could be conducted is to place participants in bright or dark rooms in order to see if external factors can affect individual’s mood and thus changing their weather preference. A baseline test would be conducted before the study. Then individuals would be selected randomly and placed in either a dark room with the laptop to complete the study or be placed in a brightly lit