Alongside epigenetics is another new research field, embodied cognition, that appears to be expanding our understanding of the human mind. Suntai Kim and Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, of U. of Michigan, and Evan Polman, of NYU, authored an interesting article in The NYTimes Sunday Times (Feb 26, 2012), in which they reported on research that supports the theory that, as they put it, ” people draw on their bodily experience in constructing their social reality.” For example, holding a warm cup leads to the perception that a stranger has a “warmer” personality, holding something heavy leads to the perception that things are “weightier.”

The authors of the article have expanded this surprising, counter-intuitive theory to demonstrate that the same mechanism holds for enhancing creativity. Subjects performing a task requiring some innovative thinking were divided into one group that sat in an 8’x8’x8′ box while thinking, while the other group sat outside and next to the box. The out-of-the-box group generated 20% more ideas. Similarly, students tasked with another creative problem were divided into one group that walked randomly while thinking and another that walked in a box shaped path outlined on the floor. The free-walkers came up with 25% more ideas. Lastly, two groups of students were asked to come up with new ideas for a university complex; one group was told to lift just one hand, the other to lift alternating hands. The on-the-one-hand-and-on-the-other-hand thinkers came up with 50% more ideas.

I find this research astonishing and a bit dismaying. It makes us seem so simple-minded, so easily swayed. Pass out warm beverages, and your candidate will be seen as a warmer personality. On the other hand, as the authors put it, “by showing that bodily experiences can help create new knowledge, our results further undermine the strict separation between mind and body—another box that has confined our thinking for a long time.”