Manipulating an Independent Variable through Embodiment

1. Define key variables.

1. Create an operational definition (i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of embodiment, or embodied cognition.
   1. For the purposes of this experiment, embodiment, or embodied cognition, involves the participant directly experiencing the physical sensation of weight in a non-obvious way that can unconsciously influence cognitions.
2. Create an operational definition (i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of discipline.
   1. For purposes of this experiment, discipline is defined as the severity of sanctions or punishment that a participant feels a fellow student should receive following a violation of campus policy (e.g., drinking underage).

2. Conducting the study

1. Meet student/participant outside of the library.
2. Provide participant with informed consent, a brief description of the research (getting students’ opinions on appropriate forms of discipline for campus conduct violations), a sense of the procedure, an indication of potential risks/benefits, the right of withdrawal at any time, and a manner to get help if they experience discomfort.
3. Have the participant sign the informed consent form on researcher’s textbook in a way that the participant does not have to hold anything except the pen.
4. Tell participant that you would like him/her to complete a written survey and to make the task easier, he/she can fill it out using a clipboard.
5. The researcher should hand the participant the clipboard to hold, while the researcher takes 10 s to look for the proper survey in her bag. 
   1. Heavy clipboard has ~ 5 lb weight inside/attached.
6. The researcher will then give the participant the survey and ask the participant to complete it (participant remains standing).
7. The survey asks the participant to indicate her/his thoughts on the appropriate level of punishment for various campus infractions such as vandalism, plagiarism, or cheating on a test (Figure 1).
   
   Figure 1: Sample student opinion survey given to participants.

3. Debrief.

1. Participant is told the nature of the study.
   1. “Thank you for participating. In this study I was trying to determine if the experience of weight through holding something heavy would influence severity of discipline. There were two groups in the study, one group held a heavy clipboard, the other group held a standard clipboard. We hypothesized that those in the heavy clipboard condition would be stricter in their discipline by giving harsher penalties.”
   2. “We could not tell you about our hypotheses ahead of time because this process (what psychologists call embodied cognition) is an unconscious process that occurs outside of your awareness. Because of the nature of the deception, it is quite natural for participants to not realize that they were being deceived.”

4. Go through the “Conducting the study” procedure twice, with two different participants (one per condition). Once for a person completing the survey with a heavy clipboard, and once for a person completing it with a standard clipboard. The idea is that we are highlighting one participant per condition, but that in running a real version of the study there would be 61 per condition.