title: Do you use your head or follow your heart? Self-location predicts personality, emotion, decision making, and performance.
abstract: The head is thought to be rational and cold, whereas the heart is thought to be emotional and warm. In 8 studies (total N = 725), we pursued the idea that such body metaphors are widely consequential. Study 1 introduced a novel individual difference variable, one asking people to locate the self in the head or the heart. Irrespective of sex differences, head-locators characterized themselves as rational, logical, and interpersonally cold, whereas heart-locators characterized themselves as emotional, feminine, and interpersonally warm (Studies 1-3). Study 4 showed that head-locators were more accurate in answering general knowledge questions and had higher grade point averages, and Study 5 showed that heart-locators were more likely to favor emotional over rational considerations in moral decision making. Study 6 linked self-locations to reactivity phenomena in daily life--for example, heart-locators experienced greater negative emotion on high stressor days. In Study 7, we manipulated attention to the head versus the heart and found that head-pointing facilitated intellectual performance, whereas heart-pointing led to emotional decision making. Study 8 replicated Study 3's findings with a nearly year-long delay between the self-location and outcome measures. The findings converge on the importance of head-heart metaphors for understanding individual differences in cognition, emotion, and performance.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA. Adam.Fetterman@my.ndsu.edu
authors.forename: Adam K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Fetterman
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult