A group of researchers from Ohio State University performed two studies at the same time with 71 students. The students were separated into two groups, one directed by the business school and the other by the arts school.



They were told the arts study was researching facts that play a part in people's acting abilities, specifically keeping a certain posture while doing other things, and the business study was looking into facts dealing with job satisfaction and good performance. The students sat at a computer terminal and were told to either, ‘sit up straight and push out the chest' or ‘sit slouched forward with the face looking down to the knees'.

While seated in one of these two ways, the students wrote down either three positive or negative personal characteristics related to future performance on the job. Next, they completed a survey where they rated themselves on how well they would do as an employee. The resulting rating was closely related to the posture they assumed while writing the positive and negative characteristics.

The students that sat up straight in a confident posture rated themselves according to the positive or negative characteristics they wrote down. If they wrote positive ones, they rated themselves higher, while with the negative ones, they rated themselves lower.

The researchers discovered that people who were asked to sit up straight when asked if they were qualified for the job were more likely to believe the thoughts they wrote down, whether positive or negative, than those who were slouching while writing about their capacity.

The students who sat in good posture rated themselves higher than the ones who were slouched on their positive thoughts, and rated themselves lower than the slouched ones on their negative thoughts because their confidence was stronger no matter the case.

The researchers never mentioned the words ‘confidence' or ‘doubt' when giving the instructions, nor any other word that could lead them to a certain feeling based on their posture. What this suggests is that people's thoughts are influenced by their posture, even if they don't realize it. This also proves that posture affects not only what others think of us but also what we think about ourselves.

Posture is something you can change about yourself. There are exercise routines like Yoga and Pilates that center on posture and alignment, as well as top of the line back support systems to help your body get used to the right posture easily.

There is no question about it! Good posture has psychological benefits if you are a positive individual, and it is worth paying attention to.

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