Real body language

Natalie Ang­ier reviews recent stud­ies in the field of embod­ied cog­ni­tion, which rec­og­nizes that we process infor­ma­tion not only with our minds but with our entire bod­ies. For exam­ple, a per­son who think­ing about the future may lean for­ward slightly, and per­son reflect­ing on the past my tip back­wards. It seems the body can be very literal-minded. Some­one hold­ing a warm drink is more likely to think well of other peo­ple than if they were hold­ing a cold drink. Ges­tur­ing can help chil­dren mas­ter math. Our Carte­sian mind­set insists that think­ing is the brain’s domain, but these stud­ies hint at a nuanced two-way com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the body.