AN EMBODIMENT PERSPECTIVE ON PROTECTION MOTIVATION THEORY: THE IMPACT OF INCIDENTAL WEIGHT SENSATIONS ON THREAT-APPRAISAL, COPING-APPRAISAL, AND PROTECTION MOTIVATION

IntroductionHealth research highlights myriad ways in which mind and body are closely intertwined (Bishop, 1994). Several cognitive processes constitute our motivation to behave healthily and hence build scaffold for health of mind and body. Accordingly, health psychology prevailingly focuses on mechanisms between mental processes and bodily behaviour (Matarazzo, 1980). However, previous research has neglected potential impact of basal bodily sensations on cognitions determining health motivation. This is surprising as theory of embodied cognition suggests a strong bidirectional relationship between bodily experiences and higher cognitive processes (Lee & Schwarz, 2012). Here, I will demonstrate that this concept is of particular importance for healthy behaviour. With regard to Protection Motivation Theory (PMT, Rogers, 1983), I present first effects of haptic sensations on those factors that constitute our motivation to behave healthily.Embodied Cognition and WeightAccording to theory of embodied cognition, higher cognitive processes are strongly linked to sensory and motor processes; that is, mind's activity is ingrained in body's interaction with world (e.g., Wilson, 2002; Kaspar, Konig, Schwandt, & Konig, 2014). Following this perspective, we should extend so far considered array of environmental inputs influencing one's protection motivation by taking basal bodily sensations into account. Research on healthy behaviour has heretofore neglected this possibility. In contrast to persuasive communications that are commonly used to positively influence motivation for healthier behaviour, effect of bodily experiences is much more direct, less ambiguous, and requires less cognitive evaluation (Lee & Schwarz, 2012).Current literature on embodied cognition postulates that cognition is grounded on bodily states. According to a developmental perspective, sensorimotor experiences early in life serve as a foundation for later learning of more abstract concepts. Williams, Huang, and Bargh (2009) labelled this phenomenon as scaffolding because humans readily integrate incoming information with extant knowledge structures (p. 1257). Children learn that interaction with heavy objects requires more physical effort and more cognitive planning than dealing with light objects (Jostmann, Lakens, & Schubert, 2009). The repeated experience of characteristics early in life then provides a scaffold for later development of abstract concepts such as seriousness, importance, and potency. It is assumed that such established associations between specific sensorimotor sensations and higher cognitive processes do not evaporate over time (Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010). Hence, bodily experience of simultaneously stimulates physical sensations and associated cognitive concepts. Everyday language indeed includes phrases expressing this established relationship such as idiom the gravity of situation (Ackerman et al., 2010) or an issue that carries weight (Schneider, Rutjens, Jostmann, & Lakens, 2011). Accordingly, several authors refer to conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff& Johnson, 1980) postulating that abstract concepts are represented in a conceptual system by concrete bodily metaphors. This idea also implies that effect of a specific bodily sensation does not generalize to all abstract cognitions but is limited to those cognitive domains that are conceptually linked to a specific embodied information (Ackerman et al., 2010; Kaspar, 2013).Recent studies on effects provided evidence for this embodiment perspective. The haptic sensation of heaviness, compared to lightness, increased evaluation of a job candidate's potency and seriousness (Ackerman et al., 2010), perceived importance of fair decision-making procedures (Jostmann et al., 2009), importance of visual attractiveness of others (Kaspar & Krull, 2013), and importance of a book's content (Chandler, Reinhard, & Schwarz, 2012). …