Citation
Nair, S., Sagar,
M., Sollers, J. III, Consedine, N., & Broadbent, E. (2015).
Do slumped and
upright postures affect stress responses? A randomized trial.
Health Psychology, 34(6),
632–641. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000146
Abstract
Objective: The hypothesis that muscular states are related to
emotions has been supported predominantly by research on facial
expressions.However, body posture also may be important to the initiation
and modulation of emotions. This experiment aimed to investigate
whether an upright seated posture could influence affective and
cardiovascular responses to a psychological stress task, relative to a slumped
seated posture. Method: There were 74 participants who were randomly assigned
to either a slumped or upright seated posture. Their backs were strapped with
physiotherapy tape to hold this posture throughout the study. Participants were
told a cover story to reduce expectation effects of posture. Participants
completed a reading task, the Trier Social Stress speech task, assessments of
mood, self-esteem, and perceived threat. Blood pressure and heart rate were
continuously measured. Results: Upright participants reported higher
self-esteem, more arousal, better mood, and lower fear, compared to slumped
participants. Linguistic analysis showed slumped participants used more
negative emotion words, first-person singular pronouns, affective process
words, sadness words, and fewer positive emotion words and total words during
the speech. Upright participants had higher pulse pressure during and after the
stressor. Conclusions: Adopting an upright seated posture in the face of stress
can maintain self-esteem, reduce negative mood, and increase positive mood compared
to a slumped posture. Furthermore, sitting upright increases rate of speech and
reduces self-focus. Sitting upright may be a simple behavioral strategy to help
build resilience to stress. The research is consistent with embodied cognition
theories that muscular and autonomic states influence emotional responding.
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