Weight as an Embodiment of Importance
Nils B. Jostmann, Daniël Lakens, and Thomas W. Schubert
We may not judge a book by its cover, but we might by how much it weighs. Volunteers who completed a questionnaire holding a heavy, weighed-down clipboard assigned more value to currencies, placed more importance on issues, and had more confidence in their opinions compared to volunteers holding lightweight clipboards. These results suggest that the abstract concept of importance and how we judge issues may be grounded in physical experiences of weight.
(complete article in this month's Psychological Science. Not sure if this link will work for non-subscribers)
So if you want people to take your questions more seriously, give them something to fill out that's on a weighty clipboard rather than a light one...
