Abstract

Rigid social categorization can lead to negative social consequences such as stereotyping and prejudice. The authors hypothesized that bodily experiences of fluidity would promote fluidity in social-categorical thinking. Across a series of experiments, fluid movements compared with nonfluid movements led to more fluid lay theories of social categories, more fluidity in social categorization, and consequences of fluid social-categorical thinking, decreased stereotype endorsement, and increased concern for social inequalities. The role of sensorimotor states in fluid social cognition, with consequences for social judgment and behavior, is discussed.

Citation

Slepian, Michael, M. Weisbuch, K. Pauker, B. Bastian, and N. Ambady. "Fluid movement and fluid social cognition: Bodily movement influences essentialist thought." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 40, no. 1 (January 2014): 111-120.

Each author name for a Columbia Business School faculty member is linked to a faculty research page, which lists additional publications by that faculty member.

Each topic is linked to an index of publications on that topic.