JuliaB
02-04-2010, 10:42 AM
I thought I would share this interesting article with you all.
Although this article doesn't address spirituality directly, the implications are provocative to me. How does our body react, or move through the world, in response to our spiritual (or lack thereof) beliefs? For example, if I belief there is a divine presence 'protecting' me, won't I move through the world in a more relaxed fashion? If I do not belief in anything supernatural, then how does that translate to my body?
Just reflecting...any other thoughts out there?
Julia
ABSTRACT THOUGHTS? THE BODY TAKES THEM LITERALLY
By Natalie Angier
New York Times
February 2, 2010
Basics - Abstract Thoughts Prompt Literal Physical Responses - NYTimes.com (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/02angier.html)
The theory of relativity showed us that time and space are intertwined. To
which our smarty-pants body might well reply: Tell me something I didn¹t
already know, Einstein.
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked
to engage in a bit of mental time travel, and to recall past events or
imagine future ones, participants¹ bodies subliminally acted out the
metaphors embedded in how we commonly conceptualized the flow of time.
As they thought about years gone by, participants leaned slightly backward,
while in fantasizing about the future, they listed to the fore. The
deviations were not exactly Tower of Pisa leanings, amounting to some two or
three millimeters¹ shift one way or the other. Nevertheless, the
directionality was clear and consistent.
³When we talk about time, we often use spatial metaphors like ŒI¹m looking
forward to seeing you¹ or ŒI¹m reflecting back on the past,¹ ² said Lynden
K. Miles, who conducted the study with his colleagues Louise K. Nind and C.
Neil Macrae. ³It was pleasing to us that we could take an abstract concept
such as time and show that it was manifested in body movements.²
The new study, published in January in the journal Psychological Science, is
part of the immensely popular field called embodied cognition, the idea that
the brain is not the only part of us with a mind of its own.
³How we process information is related not just to our brains but to our
entire body,² said Nils B. Jostmann of the University of Amsterdam. ³We use
every system available to us to come to a conclusion and make sense of
what¹s going on.²
Research in embodied cognition has revealed that the body takes language to
heart and can be awfully literal-minded.
You say you¹re looking forward to the future? Here, Ma, watch me pitch
forward!
You say a person is warm and likable, as opposed to cold and standoffish? In
one recent study at Yale, researchers divided 41 college students into two
groups and casually asked the members of Group A to hold a cup of hot
coffee, those in Group B to hold iced coffee. The students were then ushered
into a testing room and asked to evaluate the personality of an imaginary
individual based on a packet of information.
Students who had recently been cradling the warm beverage were far likelier
to judge the fictitious character as warm and friendly than were those who
had held the iced coffee.
Or maybe you are feeling the chill wind of social opprobrium. When
researchers at the University of Toronto instructed a group of 65 students
to remember a time when they had felt either socially accepted or socially
snubbed, those who conjured up memories of a rejection judged the
temperature of the room to be an average of five degrees colder than those
who had been wrapped in warm and fuzzy thoughts of peer approval.
The body embodies abstractions the best way it knows how: physically. What
is moral turpitude, an ethical lapse, but a soiling of one¹s character? Time
for the Lady Macbeth Handi Wipes. One study showed that participants who
were asked to dwell on a personal moral transgression like adultery or
cheating on a test were more likely to request an antiseptic cloth afterward
than were those who had been instructed to recall a good deed they had done.
When confronted with a double entendre, a verbal fork in the road, the body
heeds Yogi Berra¹s advice, and takes it. In a report published last August
in Psychological Science, Dr. Jostmann and his colleagues Daniel Lakens and
Thomas W. Schubert explored the degree to which the body conflates weight
and importance. They learned, for example, that when students were told that
a particular book was vital to the curriculum, they judged the book to be
physically heavier than those told the book was ancillary to their studies.
The researchers wanted to know whether the sensation of weightiness might
influence people¹s judgments more broadly.
In a series of experiments, study participants were asked to answer
questionnaires that were attached to a metal clipboard with a compartment on
the back capable of holding papers. In some cases the compartments were left
empty, and so the clipboard weighed only 1.45 pounds. In other cases the
compartments were filled, for a total clipboard package of 2.29 pounds.
Participants stood with either a light or heavy clipboard cradled in their
arm, filling out surveys. In one, they were asked to estimate the value of
six unfamiliar foreign currencies. In another, students indicated how
important they thought it was that a university committee take their
opinions into account when deciding on the size of foreign study grants. For
a third experiment, participants were asked how satisfied they were with (a)
the city of Amsterdam and (b) the mayor of Amsterdam.
In every study, the results suggested, the clipboard weight had its
roundabout say. Students holding the heavier clipboard judged the currencies
to be more valuable than did those with the lightweight boards. Participants
with weightier clipboards insisted that students be allowed to weigh in on
the university¹s financial affairs. Those holding the more formidable board
even adopted a more rigorous mind-set, and proved more likely to consider
the connection between the livability of Amsterdam and the effectiveness of
its leader.
As Dr. Jostmann sees it, the readiness of the body to factor physical cues
into its deliberations over seemingly unrelated and highly abstract concerns
often makes sense. Our specific clipboard savvy notwithstanding, ³the issue
of how humans view gravity is evolutionarily useful,² he said.
³Something heavy is something you should take care of,² he continued. ³Heavy
things are not easily pushed around, but they can easily push us around.²
They are weighty affairs in every tine of the word.
The cogitating body prefers a hands-on approach, and gesturing has been
shown to help children master math.
Among students who have difficulty with equations like 4 + 5 + 3 = __ + 3,
for example, performance improves markedly if they are taught the right
gestures: grouping together the unique left-side numbers with a two-fingered
V, and then pointing the index finger at the blank space on the right.
To learn how to rotate an object mentally, first try a pantomime. ³If you
encourage kids to do the rotation movement with their hands, that helps them
subsequently do it in their heads,² said Susan Goldin-Meadow of the
University of Chicago, ³whereas watching others do it isn¹t enough.²
Yesterday is regrettable, tomorrow still hypothetical. But you can always
listen to your body, and seize today with both hands.
Although this article doesn't address spirituality directly, the implications are provocative to me. How does our body react, or move through the world, in response to our spiritual (or lack thereof) beliefs? For example, if I belief there is a divine presence 'protecting' me, won't I move through the world in a more relaxed fashion? If I do not belief in anything supernatural, then how does that translate to my body?
Just reflecting...any other thoughts out there?
Julia
ABSTRACT THOUGHTS? THE BODY TAKES THEM LITERALLY
By Natalie Angier
New York Times
February 2, 2010
Basics - Abstract Thoughts Prompt Literal Physical Responses - NYTimes.com (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/02angier.html)
The theory of relativity showed us that time and space are intertwined. To
which our smarty-pants body might well reply: Tell me something I didn¹t
already know, Einstein.
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked
to engage in a bit of mental time travel, and to recall past events or
imagine future ones, participants¹ bodies subliminally acted out the
metaphors embedded in how we commonly conceptualized the flow of time.
As they thought about years gone by, participants leaned slightly backward,
while in fantasizing about the future, they listed to the fore. The
deviations were not exactly Tower of Pisa leanings, amounting to some two or
three millimeters¹ shift one way or the other. Nevertheless, the
directionality was clear and consistent.
³When we talk about time, we often use spatial metaphors like ŒI¹m looking
forward to seeing you¹ or ŒI¹m reflecting back on the past,¹ ² said Lynden
K. Miles, who conducted the study with his colleagues Louise K. Nind and C.
Neil Macrae. ³It was pleasing to us that we could take an abstract concept
such as time and show that it was manifested in body movements.²
The new study, published in January in the journal Psychological Science, is
part of the immensely popular field called embodied cognition, the idea that
the brain is not the only part of us with a mind of its own.
³How we process information is related not just to our brains but to our
entire body,² said Nils B. Jostmann of the University of Amsterdam. ³We use
every system available to us to come to a conclusion and make sense of
what¹s going on.²
Research in embodied cognition has revealed that the body takes language to
heart and can be awfully literal-minded.
You say you¹re looking forward to the future? Here, Ma, watch me pitch
forward!
You say a person is warm and likable, as opposed to cold and standoffish? In
one recent study at Yale, researchers divided 41 college students into two
groups and casually asked the members of Group A to hold a cup of hot
coffee, those in Group B to hold iced coffee. The students were then ushered
into a testing room and asked to evaluate the personality of an imaginary
individual based on a packet of information.
Students who had recently been cradling the warm beverage were far likelier
to judge the fictitious character as warm and friendly than were those who
had held the iced coffee.
Or maybe you are feeling the chill wind of social opprobrium. When
researchers at the University of Toronto instructed a group of 65 students
to remember a time when they had felt either socially accepted or socially
snubbed, those who conjured up memories of a rejection judged the
temperature of the room to be an average of five degrees colder than those
who had been wrapped in warm and fuzzy thoughts of peer approval.
The body embodies abstractions the best way it knows how: physically. What
is moral turpitude, an ethical lapse, but a soiling of one¹s character? Time
for the Lady Macbeth Handi Wipes. One study showed that participants who
were asked to dwell on a personal moral transgression like adultery or
cheating on a test were more likely to request an antiseptic cloth afterward
than were those who had been instructed to recall a good deed they had done.
When confronted with a double entendre, a verbal fork in the road, the body
heeds Yogi Berra¹s advice, and takes it. In a report published last August
in Psychological Science, Dr. Jostmann and his colleagues Daniel Lakens and
Thomas W. Schubert explored the degree to which the body conflates weight
and importance. They learned, for example, that when students were told that
a particular book was vital to the curriculum, they judged the book to be
physically heavier than those told the book was ancillary to their studies.
The researchers wanted to know whether the sensation of weightiness might
influence people¹s judgments more broadly.
In a series of experiments, study participants were asked to answer
questionnaires that were attached to a metal clipboard with a compartment on
the back capable of holding papers. In some cases the compartments were left
empty, and so the clipboard weighed only 1.45 pounds. In other cases the
compartments were filled, for a total clipboard package of 2.29 pounds.
Participants stood with either a light or heavy clipboard cradled in their
arm, filling out surveys. In one, they were asked to estimate the value of
six unfamiliar foreign currencies. In another, students indicated how
important they thought it was that a university committee take their
opinions into account when deciding on the size of foreign study grants. For
a third experiment, participants were asked how satisfied they were with (a)
the city of Amsterdam and (b) the mayor of Amsterdam.
In every study, the results suggested, the clipboard weight had its
roundabout say. Students holding the heavier clipboard judged the currencies
to be more valuable than did those with the lightweight boards. Participants
with weightier clipboards insisted that students be allowed to weigh in on
the university¹s financial affairs. Those holding the more formidable board
even adopted a more rigorous mind-set, and proved more likely to consider
the connection between the livability of Amsterdam and the effectiveness of
its leader.
As Dr. Jostmann sees it, the readiness of the body to factor physical cues
into its deliberations over seemingly unrelated and highly abstract concerns
often makes sense. Our specific clipboard savvy notwithstanding, ³the issue
of how humans view gravity is evolutionarily useful,² he said.
³Something heavy is something you should take care of,² he continued. ³Heavy
things are not easily pushed around, but they can easily push us around.²
They are weighty affairs in every tine of the word.
The cogitating body prefers a hands-on approach, and gesturing has been
shown to help children master math.
Among students who have difficulty with equations like 4 + 5 + 3 = __ + 3,
for example, performance improves markedly if they are taught the right
gestures: grouping together the unique left-side numbers with a two-fingered
V, and then pointing the index finger at the blank space on the right.
To learn how to rotate an object mentally, first try a pantomime. ³If you
encourage kids to do the rotation movement with their hands, that helps them
subsequently do it in their heads,² said Susan Goldin-Meadow of the
University of Chicago, ³whereas watching others do it isn¹t enough.²
Yesterday is regrettable, tomorrow still hypothetical. But you can always
listen to your body, and seize today with both hands.