Your Highness: Vertical Positions as Perceptual Symbols of Power.

Abstract

Metaphorically, power equals up. Drawing on embodied theories of cognition, the author argues that thinking about power involves mental simulation of space and can be interfered with by perception of vertical differences. Study 1 assessed image schemas for power and found a shared vertical difference metaphor. Studies 2, 3, and 4 showed that the judgment of a group's power is influenced by the group's vertical position in space and motor responses implying vertical movement. Study 5 ruled out that the influence of vertical position on power judgments is driven by valence differences. Study 6 showed that vertical position also influences the power judgment result itself. The evidence suggests that the concept of power is partly represented in perceptual form as vertical difference.