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theses

A current controversy exists regarding the effects of open/expansive body postures on power-related outcomes. While some studies suggest that open postures make people feel and behave in a more empowered way (Carney et al., 2010), other studies challenge these findings (Ranehill et al., 2015). In the current study, I proposed that the meaning of the body posture depends on the context – whether people are being persuaded rather than persuading others. As such, I investigated the effects of open postures on both power and attitude change following persuasion. Two hundred participants were randomly assigned to hold either an open or closed body posture, while simultaneously being exposed to either a strong or a weak message in favor of introducing a junk food tax. . I measured their attitudes towards junk food tax before and after the persuasive message to obtain a measure of the degree to which their attitude changes following persuasion. I proposed two competing hypotheses- if open body postures embody only power, then participants will be more confident in their own thoughts and will be less persuaded by the message irrespective of its strength. On the contrary, if open body postures embody openness to persuasion under certain circumstances, we will see a greater attitude change in favor of the strong argument (vs. weak argument). When looking at the change in attitude pre-post persuasion, findings revealed that participants exposed to a strong message were less likely to change their attitude if they held an open vs. closed posture, a finding that is more consistent with the power rather than persuasion explanation. However, neither subjective feelings of power nor openness mediated the relationship between posture and Attitude Change. Implications for both the power and persuasion literature are discussed.

ETD_8179

M.A.

Includes bibliographical references

by Vaani Pardal

doi:10.7282/T3KK9FKN

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.