Study: Physical posture may influence political beliefs

The researchers discovered that people who lean to the left are more likely to support liberal beliefs — a physical manifestation of the familiar left-right political division that originated in the 1791 French Legislative Assembly, where liberals sat on the left and conservatives on the right.

To conduct their study, Oppenheimer and Trail recruited subjects from outside Frist Campus Center, compensating them for their time with candy.

Each subject was instructed to sit in a chair with the wheels removed on one side or the other, causing him or her to tilt slightly to the left or right. Participants then filled out a survey with a series of questions aimed at determining their political alignment.

Sure enough, participants who leaned to the left agreed with Democrats more than subjects who leaned to the right. The reverse effect was less pronounced: Though subjects who leaned to the right did tend to agree more with Republican views, the difference was small.

For the researchers, the study was much more than a mere curiosity.

“This is one more piece of evidence in a burgeoning literature demonstrating that political attitudes are not necessarily derived rationally or from considerations of a voter’s goals or interests,” the study said.

Previous studies at the University conducted by psychology professor Alexander Todorov and Janine Willis ’05 showed that people form strong positive or negative opinions on political candidates after only 100-millisecond peeks at their faces.

The results of these studies underscore the importance of framing arguments in the political world as well as the impact that seemingly trivial factors can have on political beliefs.

Another experiment described in the study draws a similar connection between the political alignment of subjects and the hand in which they are asked to hold an object.

“The pundits who frame debates and choose the metaphors thus can have tremendous influence on public opinion,” the study said.

But the researchers acknowledged that the tilt of a chair will likely not prompt lifelong Democrats to suddenly switch party affiliations.

“Still, all things being equal,” the study said, “the present research demonstrates that spatial orientation can change party favoritism from strong to tepid, from tepid to ambivalent, or from ambivalent to downright opposed.”