Cornell University
Library
Cornell UniversityLibrary

eCommons

Help
Log In(current)
DigitalCollections@ILR
ILR School
  1. Home
  2. ILR School
  3. ILR Collection
  4. ILR Articles and Chapters
  5. It Hurts When I Do This (Or You Do That): Posture and Pain Tolerance

It Hurts When I Do This (Or You Do That): Posture and Pain Tolerance

File(s)
Bohns10_It_hurts_when_I_do_this.pdf (561.77 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/75759
Collections
Faculty Publications - Organizational Behavior
ILR Articles and Chapters
Author
Bohns, Vanessa K.
Wiltermuth, Scott
Abstract

Recent research (Carney, Cuddy, & Yap, 2010) has shown that adopting a powerful pose changes people's hormonal levels and increases their propensity to take risks in the same ways that possessing actual power does. In the current research, we explore whether adopting physical postures associated with power, or simply interacting with others who adopt these postures, can similarly influence sensitivity to pain. We conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants who adopted dominant poses displayed higher pain thresholds than those who adopted submissive or neutral poses. These findings were not explained by semantic priming. In Experiment 2, we manipulated power poses via an interpersonal interaction and found that power posing engendered a complementary (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003) embodied power experience in interaction partners. Participants who interacted with a submissive confederate displayed higher pain thresholds and greater handgrip strength than participants who interacted with a dominant confederate.

Date Issued
2012-01-01
Keywords
complementarity
•
dominance
•
embodiment
•
interpersonal relations
•
power
•
pain
Related DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.022
Rights
Required Publisher Statement: © Elsevier. Final version published as: Bohns, V. K., & Wiltermuth, S. S. (2012). It hurts when I do this (or you do that): Posture and pain tolerance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(1), 341-345. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.022 Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Type
article

Site Statistics | Help

About eCommons | Policies | Terms of use | Contact Us

copyright © 2002-2026 Cornell University Library | Privacy | Web Accessibility Assistance