Incidental Haptic Sensations Influence Social Judgments and Decisions

Abstract

Between a Rock and a Hard Judgment In general terms, our sensory and motor pathways mature sooner than the so-called higher cognitive centers, which become fully operational later in life. Might these early somatic communication channels with the outside world influence and become buried within the higher levels of processing involved in forming impressions of other people and deciding how to behave toward them? Ackerman et al. (p. 1712 ) provide evidence for just such a process by focusing on touch. By manipulating the weight, hardness, or roughness of objects that subjects were exposed to, they were able to bias the social judgments and behaviors of the subjects in unrelated realms, such as assessing the rigidness or seriousness of employees and job applicants.