Hard bargains no soft touch: study

WASHINGTON: Scientists are finding that how something feels to a person can affect how he or she acts.

A series of tests done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that the sense of touch could have a significant impact on people's reactions, even though they may not realise it.

In one experiment, for example, 86 people took part in negotiations over a new car with a sticker price of US$16,500 ($23,350).

Some were seated on hard wooden chairs. Others had comfy padded seats. After their first offers were rejected, the participants made a second proposal for the car.

Car dealers take note: people on stiff wooden chairs took a hard line in the deal, raising their offered price by US$896.50, relaxed folks in soft chairs were willing to spend an extra US$1243.60.

The hardness, the researchers concluded, produced strictness and rigidity in the negotiation.

"We're not just a brain in a jar, our body is fundamentally tied to our understanding of the world," said Joshua Ackerman of the MIT, co-author of the study which is being published in the journal Science.

Ackerman, and colleagues John Bargh of Yale university and Christopher Nocera from Harvard, concluded that understanding the effect of touch "may be especially important for negotiators, pollsters, job seekers, sensory marketers, and others".

Another test asked 54 passersby to evaluate a job candidate by reading that person's resume, attached to a clipboard. Some clipboards weighed a third of a kilogram, others weighed about 2kg.

Note to job seekers: people holding the heavy clipboard evaluated the job candidate as better and more serious than people holding the same resume on a light clipboard.

Holding a light clipboard or sitting in a hard chair didn't necessarily put people in a bad mood, but it did produce specific changes in their behaviour.

"Having this simple cue of weight really changed people's opinions," Ackerman said.

And as for the hard-versus-soft chair, he said they expected touching things with the hands to have an effect, but they hadn't been sure about touching with other body parts.

- AP