RUNNING HEAD: SOCIAL POWER AND WEIGHT PERCEPTION The Influence of Social Power on Weight Perception

Three studies explored whether social power affects the perception of physical properties of objects, testing the hypothesis that the powerless find objects to be heavier than the powerful. Correlational findings from Study 1 revealed that people with a low personal sense of power perceived loaded boxes as heavier than people with a high personal sense of power. In Study 2 experimentally manipulated power indicated that participants in the powerless condition judged the boxes as heavier than did participants in the powerful condition. Study 3 further indicated that lacking power actively influences weight perception relative to a neutral control condition, whereas having power does not. Although much research on embodied perception has shown that various physiological and psychosocial resources influence visual perception of the physical environment, this is the first demonstration suggesting that power, a psychosocial construct that relates to the control of resources, changes the perception of physical properties of objects.