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Category: Project

Description: The present research shows effects of observed vertical head orientation of another person on numerical cognition in the observer. Participants saw portrait-like photographs from a frontal view with their gaze being directed at the camera and the head being tilted up or down (vs. not tilted). The photograph appeared immediately before each trial in different numerical cognition tasks. In Experiment 1, participants produced smaller numbers in a Random Number Generation (RNG) task after having viewed persons with a down-tilted head orientation relative to up-tilted and non-tilted positions. In Experiment 2, numerical estimates in an anchoring-like trivia question task were smaller following presentations of persons with a lowered head orientation relative to normal head orientations. In Experiment 3, a response key that was associated with larger numbers in a numerical magnitude task was pressed less frequently in a randomly intermixed free choice task when the photograph showed a person with a down-tilted relative to an up-tilted head orientation.