title: Humans Conceptualize Victory and Defeat in Body Size.
abstract: Size matters considerably for victory and defeat during competitive situations. Drawing on the embodied theory of cognition, we examined the reciprocal association between size and competition outcomes. To do so, we used the 'rock-paper-scissors game', whose outcome is not contingent on apparent physical size. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge whether the target gesture was a winning or a losing one. Compared to responses in the incompatible condition (small-winner and large-loser), those in the compatible condition (large-winner and small-loser) were quicker. In Experiment 2, we asked participants to adjust the size of gestures to correspond to gestures previously presented, and found that the winning gesture was estimated as much larger than the losing one. In line with our main hypothesis, size information can interfere with judgments about competition outcomes, and vice versa, even when the outcome is unrelated to body size.
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang University, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Ningbo University, Department of Psychology, Ningbo, 315000, China.
authors.forename: Zhongqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang University, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
authors.forename: Jifan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang University, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
authors.forename: Chaoer
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang University, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
authors.forename: Mowei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D049628:Body Size; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*