“Do perceptions of heaviness bias impressions?” Effects of subjective heaviness and physical weight in the cognitive process of evaluation

Abstract

This study examined the effects of subjective heaviness and physical weight in the evaluation process. Past studies, have indicated that the abstract concept of importance is related to physical heaviness. For example, when participants were asked to judge the significance of curriculum vitae presented on either a heavy or light clipboard, those presented on heavier clipboards were judged to be more impressive than those presented on lighter clipboards. According to the results, sense of heaviness is thought to activate concepts metaphorically related to heaviness, and this leads to a change in impression. However, previous studies have not distinguished between subjective heaviness and physical weight, hence the purpose of this study was to clarify which of the two can better account for changes in impressions. A psychological experiment using a tasting task was conducted. The results confirmed that subjective heaviness influences evaluations of price and value.