Sitting up straight may improve your mood and decision-making
McGill University
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The effects were relatively small and were observed under
controlled conditions. Still, the findings offer new evidence that physical
position can influence mood and behavior, said Jorge Armony, a professor in the
Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at McGill and the study's senior
author.
Researchers Changed Posture Without Revealing the Study's Goal
Armony worked with graduate student Soren Wainio-Theberge,
who developed the original idea for the research and coauthored the paper. The
team recruited nearly 200 people from the McGill community.
Participants first completed tests using a computer monitor.
They were then asked to perform another task on a tablet while being told that
the researchers were evaluating a mobile application.
The tablet setup was designed to subtly influence how each
person sat. In one group, the device was placed on a stand supported by an
adjustable table, encouraging participants to remain upright. In another group,
the tablet lay flat on a desk set at a lower height, which encouraged
participants to lean forward and hunch over.
Upright Participants Took More Effective Risks
The participants next completed a risk-taking game involving
a virtual balloon. Players could earn larger rewards by continuing to inflate
the balloon, but they could lose everything from that round if it burst.
People in the upright group generally took greater risks and
earned larger rewards over the course of the game. The researchers concluded
that these participants were not simply behaving more recklessly.
"This suggests they were not acting more impulsively
but rather were engaging in more effective risk-taking," explained Armony.
Responses to a questionnaire also showed that participants
in the upright group reported significantly stronger feelings of pride, an
emotion associated with a more positive mood.
A New Test of the Posture and Mood Connection
Scientists have long debated whether body posture can
meaningfully affect thoughts, emotions, and behavior. The McGill researchers
designed the experiment to address several concerns raised by earlier studies.
Rather than directly instructing participants to sit in a
particular way, the team altered the environment so that posture changed
without the participants knowing why. This approach helped address a major
criticism of earlier "power pose" research: that participants may
have behaved differently because they understood what the researchers expected.
During interviews conducted after the experiment, most
participants said they had not realized that their posture was being
manipulated.
The team also used video software to measure each
participant's neck angle and verify whether the physical setup produced the
intended posture. Earlier studies had not often included this type of objective
measurement.
Desk Design May Subtly Influence Behavior
Armony cautioned that simply changing posture is unlikely to
produce a dramatic transformation in someone's life. However, the results raise
questions about whether ordinary environmental features, including workplace
ergonomics, may have small but measurable effects on emotions and decision
making.
"Manipulating posture implicitly through environmental
constraints influences mood and risk-taking behavior," by Soren
Wainio-Theberge and Jorge Armony, was published in the British Journal
of Psychology.
The research received support from the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada.
Journal Reference:
- Soren
Wainio‐Theberge, Jorge Armony. Manipulating
posture implicitly through environmental constraints influences mood and
risk‐taking behavior. British Journal of
Psychology, 2026; DOI: 10.1111/bjop.70083