Leadership

Wanna Show Managerial Determination? Cross Your Arms

By Jessica Stillman

Updated on: May 14, 2008 / 2:10 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

The Find: If you're stuck with a challenging problem and looking for an extra dose of perseverance, simply crossing your arms might help.
The Source: "The Effect of Arm Crossing on Persistence and Performance," a new study in the European Journal of Social Psychology, cited in the British Psychological Society Research Blog.

The Takeaway: Two psychologists gave a group of students an impossible-to-solve anagram. Half were told to put their hands on their thighs while trying to puzzle out the problem. The other half were told to cross their arms. The arm-crossers, on average, persisted nearly twice as long in the task -- 55 seconds vs. 30 seconds, respectively.

The research follows a raft of other experiments (some of which we've blogged about before) that prove what people do with our bodies can help unlock the potential of their brains. Most people have heard that smiling can cheer you up, for example, but similar research reveals that slouching can increase feelings of helplessness.

Moms everywhere are no doubt clucking away, reminding their offspring of all the times they corrected their poor posture, but the findings are of interest to managers as well. If paying attention to your body language is a simple, cost-free way to boost your perseverance, why not give it a try?

The Question: Do you notice any patterns in your own body language - or those of your colleagues -- that suggest there's some truth to this research?