When you are deciding who to hire for a job, or who to date, what kinds of information influence your decision? Do you consider education and background? Sure, you do. What about friendliness and social skill? Of course. And physical appearance? You bet.
But what about the kind of chair you happen to be sitting in while making your decision? Or perhaps the object you happen to be holding in your hand? Nothing like that could possibly affect your judgment, right?
Wrong.
Your sense of touch influences you far more than you realize.
Most of us have grown accustomed to the idea that our mood, and even our judgment, can be influenced by unrelated experiences of sight and sound—we feel happier on sunny days, more relaxed when listening to certain kinds of music, and more likely to lose our temper when it's hot and humid. But few of us have likely even considered the possibility that our tactile experience—the sensations associated with the things we touch—might have the same power.
New research, however, shows that the weight, texture, and hardness of the things we touch are, in fact, unconsciously factored into our decisions about things that have nothing to do with what we are touching. Potentially, every decision we make.
Let's start with weight. Heaviness is something we usually associate with seriousness and importance. Consider expressions like "the gravity of the situation," or troubles that "weigh heavily upon you," or people we call "carefree and light-hearted."
So, what happens when we make a decision while holding something heavy?
In one study, people who held a clipboard that was nearly 10 times heavier than those held by fellow participants rated a job candidate they were reviewing as much better overall, and as having displayed more serious interest in the position. In a second study, those holding the heavier clipboards recommended allocating significantly more government funding to serious social issues (like pollution) than those who held lighter clipboards. So when we hold something heavy, we actually see seriousness and importance in people and issues that we might not otherwise.
(If you want to make the best impression at your next interview, perhaps you should start by asking the potential employer to please hold onto the set of encyclopedias you just happen to have brought along while you use the restroom.)
Next, researchers examined the effects of texture. We tend to associate smoothness and roughness with ease and difficulty, respectively—"smooth sailing," "rough road ahead." Once again, the studies showed that people unconsciously transfer their tactile experience of roughness to their interpersonal decisions.
For instance, people who completed a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that had been covered in sandpaper were more likely later to describe an observed interaction between two other individuals as difficult and awkward than those who'd completed puzzles with smooth pieces. In another study, feeling roughness led participants to negotiate poorly, offering their counterparts better deals than people who'd held smooth things did—because they saw the bargaining task as more difficult.
(Never try to buy a car or negotiate a raise while wearing a wool sweater. Consider satin underpants instead. Everything seems easy when you're in satin underpants.)
Lastly, the researchers studied the effects of experiences of hardness and softness. We often associate hardness with qualities like stability, rigidness, and strictness, and softness with flexibility and yielding. Consider expressions like "an iron will," or, "she melted like butter."
As with weight and texture, hardness exerts an influence on our perceptions and behavior. People who had earlier examined a hard piece of wood later judged an employee interacting with his boss as more rigid and strict than did people who had first examined a soft blanket.
The tactile experience doesn't always have to come through your hands, either: In another study, researchers found that sitting on a hard wooden chair (instead of a soft cushioned one) made participants adopt more rigid, less cooperative negotiation strategies. Each participant was told to make an initial offer on a new car (worth $16,000). After their first offer was rejected, they were told to make another. Those who'd sat in hard chairs made second offers, on average, $350 closer to their first offer than those who'd sat in soft chairs—in other words, the hard-chair participants didn't want to budge from what they had originally said the car was worth. They had a feeling they should stick to their guns, completely unaware that this feeling was coming from their backside. Perhaps this is the origin of the expression "hardass" ...
(When you want someone to grant your request, start out by making sure they are seated on something soft—or perhaps stroking a cat.)
In all seriousness, we are more strongly influenced by all of our senses in ways most of us fail to realize. It's worth taking the time to think not only about sights and sounds and smells, but also the things you touch most frequently—the furniture in your home and workspace; your clothing; your bedding. Would work seem easier with a lighter laptop? Would your coworkers get along better if there were plush seats in the conference room? You can make whatever you're touching work to your best advantage.
Trust me: This is hard science.
My new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals is available wherever books are sold. Follow me on Twitter @hghalvorson
Not sure why you aren't reaching your goals? Try the Goal Troubleshooter Quiz!
