Routes to embodiment

Research on embodiment is rich in impressive demonstrations but somewhat poor in comprehensive explanations. Although some moderators and driving mechanisms have been identified, a comprehensive conceptual account of how bodily states or dynamics influence behavior is still missing. Here, we attempt to integrate current knowledge by describing three basic psychological mechanisms: direct state induction, which influences how humans feel or process information, unmediated by any other cognitive mechanism; modal priming, which changes the accessibility of concepts associated with a bodily state; sensorimotor simulation, which affects the ease with which congruent and incongruent actions are performed. We argue that the joint impact of these mechanisms can account for most existing embodiment effects. Additionally, we summarize empirical tests for distinguishing these mechanisms and suggest a guideline for future research about the mechanisms underlying embodiment effects.

• Publication year

  2015

• Venue

  Frontiers in Psychology

• Publication date

  2015-07-02

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00940PMID 26191033PMCID 4488596
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Continuous Theta-Burst Stimulation Demonstrates a Causal Role of Premotor Homunculus in Action Understanding

  2014cited by this paper
• Automatic ultrarapid activation and inhibition of cortical motor systems in spoken word comprehension

  2014cited by this paper
• The burden of guilt: heavy backpacks, light snacks, and enhanced morality.

  2014cited by this paper
• Experiential origins of mental metaphors: Language, culture, and the body.

  2014cited by this paper
• The Functional Role of the Periphery in Emotional Language Comprehension

  2013influential reference
• When body and mind are talking. Interoception moderates embodied cognition.

  2013cited by this paper
• From the Revolution to Embodiment

  2013cited by this paper
• Stand tall, but don't put your feet up: Universal and culturally-specific effects of expansive postures on power

  2013cited by this paper
• Embodiment meets metamemory: weight as a cue for metacognitive judgments.

  2013influential reference
• “Warm interactions” and “cold streaks”: The influence of temperature word primes on interpersonal warmth and competence-related outcomes in a dyadic sport task.

  2013cited by this paper
• BODIES IN CONTEXT: POWER POSES AS A COMPUTATION OF ACTION POSSIBILITY

  2013cited by this paper
• To judge a book by its weight you need to know its content: Knowledge moderates the use of embodied cues

  2012cited by this paper
• The 'Visual Depiction Effect' in Advertising: Facilitating Embodied Mental Simulation Through Product Orientation

  2012cited by this paper
• Automaticity in social-cognitive processes.

  2012cited by this paper
• Not all implicit measures of attitudes are created equal: Evidence from an embodiment perspective

  2012cited by this paper
• Facing depression with botulinum toxin: a randomized controlled trial.

  2012cited by this paper
• If you can't grab it, it won't grab you: The effect of restricting the dominant hand on target evaluations

  2012cited by this paper
• The destructive nature of power without status.

  2012cited by this paper
• From Physical Weight to Psychological Significance: The Contribution of Semantic Activations

  2012cited by this paper
• Covert Painting Simulations Influence Aesthetic Appreciation of Artworks

  2012cited by this paper
• Embodied Cognition: Taking the Next Step

  2012cited by this paper
• Polarity correspondence in metaphor congruency effects: structural overlap predicts categorization times for bipolar concepts presented in vertical space.

  2012cited by this paper
• Embodiment in Social Psychology

  2012cited by this paper
• Enclothed cognition

  2012cited by this paper
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bidirectionality , Mediation , and Moderation of Metaphorical Effects : The Embodiment of Social Suspicion and Fishy Smells

  2012influential reference
• Assimilation and contrast: the two sides of specific interference between action and perception

  2011cited by this paper
• Journal of Experimental Psychology : General Washing Away Your ( Good or Bad ) Luck : Physical Cleansing Affects Risk-Taking Behavior

  2011cited by this paper
• Moving forward is not only a metaphor: Approach and avoidance lead to self-evaluative assimilation and contrast

  2011cited by this paper
• Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology

  2011cited by this paper
• The Situated Inference Model

  2011cited by this paper
• To Wash Your Body, or Purify Your Soul: Physical Cleansing Would Strengthen the Sense of High Moral Character

  2011cited by this paper
• Flexibility in Embodied Language Understanding

  2011cited by this paper
• Reduced perceptual sensitivity for biological motion in paraplegia patients.

  2011cited by this paper
• Powerful Postures Versus Powerful Roles

  2011cited by this paper
• When does mimicry affect evaluative judgment?

  2011cited by this paper
• When Left Is “Right”

  2011cited by this paper
• Being Moved

  2010cited by this paper
• Mental construal and the emergence of assimilation and contrast effects: The inclusion/exclusion model.

  2010cited by this paper
• COME A BIT CLOSER: APPROACH MOTOR ACTIONS LEAD TO FEELING SIMILAR AND BEHAVIORAL ASSIMILATION

  2010cited by this paper
• A Connectionist Approach to Embodied Conceptual Metaphor

  2010cited by this paper
• Temperature perceptions as a ground for social proximity

  2010cited by this paper
• Grounded Cognition: Past, Present, and Future

  2010cited by this paper
• Incidental Haptic Sensations Influence Social Judgments and Decisions

  2010cited by this paper
• Embodied cognition and beyond: acting and sensing the body.

  2010cited by this paper
• The linguistic and embodied nature of conceptual processing.

  2010cited by this paper
• Embodiment as a unifying perspective for psychology.

  2010cited by this paper
• Motor action and emotional memory.

  2010cited by this paper
• A metaphor-enriched social cognition.

  2010influential reference
• Washing Away Postdecisional Dissonance

  2010cited by this paper
• Moving the Eye of the Beholder

  2010cited by this paper
• Remembrances of Times East

  2010cited by this paper
• Botulinum toxin cosmetic therapy correlates with a more positive mood

  2009cited by this paper
• What do we prime? On distinguishing between semantic priming, procedural priming, and goal priming

  2009cited by this paper
• The hard embodiment of culture

  2009cited by this paper
• Radical Embodied Cognitive Science

  2009cited by this paper
• Language That Puts You in Touch With Your Bodily Feelings

  2009influential reference
• Is social cognition embodied?

  2009cited by this paper
• Weight as an Embodiment of Importance

  2009cited by this paper
• Hot under the collar in a lukewarm environment: Words associated with hot temperature increase aggressive thoughts and hostile perceptions

  2009cited by this paper
• The Influence of Approach and Avoidance Behavior on Visual Selective Attention

  2009influential reference
• The Scaffolded Mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world.

  2009cited by this paper
• Effects of TMS on Different Stages of Motor and Non-Motor Verb Processing in the Primary Motor Cortex

  2009cited by this paper
• Motormouth: mere exposure depends on stimulus-specific motor simulations.

  2009influential reference
• Embodiment as a unifying perspective for psychology

  2009cited by this paper
• Embodiment of emotion concepts.

  2009cited by this paper
• Cosmetic Use of Botulinum Toxin-A Affects Processing of Emotional Language

  2009cited by this paper
• Motor abstraction: a neuroscientific account of how action goals and intentions are mapped and understood

  2009cited by this paper
• How extending your middle finger affects your perception of others: Learned movements influence concept accessibility

  2009cited by this paper
• Sports experience changes the neural processing of action language

  2008cited by this paper
• Report The Sound of Actions in Apraxia

  2008cited by this paper
• Embodied Language: A Review of the Role of the Motor System in Language Comprehension

  2008cited by this paper
• Grounded cognition.

  2008cited by this paper
• Time in the mind: using space to think about time.

  2008cited by this paper
• Regulating cognitive control through approach-avoidance motor actions.

  2008influential reference
• A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content.

  2008cited by this paper
• Moral hypervigilance: the influence of disgust sensitivity in the moral domain.

  2008cited by this paper
• Movement direction or change in distance? Self- and object-related approach–avoidance motions ☆

  2008cited by this paper
• Task related modulation of the motor system during language processing.

  2008cited by this paper
• When do motor behaviors (mis)match affective stimuli? An evaluative coding view of approach and avoidance reactions.

  2008cited by this paper
• Before and below ‘theory of mind’: embodied simulation and the neural correlates of social cognition

  2007cited by this paper
• Face to face: Blocking facial mimicry can selectively impair recognition of emotional expressions

  2007cited by this paper
• Understanding the Role of the Self in Prime-to-Behavior Effects: The Active-Self Account

  2007cited by this paper
• Action during body perception: Processing time affects self–other correspondences

  2007influential reference
• Concept empiricism: a methodological critique.

  2007cited by this paper
• Embodying Emotion

  2007cited by this paper
• Representation of body identity and body actions in extrastriate body area and ventral premotor cortex

  2007cited by this paper
• Embodied Preference Judgments

  2007cited by this paper
• Emotion simulation during language comprehension

  2007cited by this paper
• Nonvisual motor training influences biological motion perception.

  2006cited by this paper
• Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing

  2006cited by this paper
• Seeing, acting, understanding: motor resonance in language comprehension.

  2006cited by this paper
• Do Approach-Avoidance Actions Create Attitudes?

  2006cited by this paper
• Automaticity: a theoretical and conceptual analysis.

  2006cited by this paper
• Polarity correspondence: A general principle for performance of speeded binary classification tasks.

  2006cited by this paper
• Doing Is for Thinking!

  2006cited by this paper
• Action experience alters 3-month-old infants' perception of others' actions.

  2005cited by this paper
• Embodiment in Attitudes, Social Perception, and Emotion

  2005cited by this paper
• The Influence of Approach and Avoidance Cues on Attentional Flexibility

  2005cited by this paper
• Constraining Theories of Embodied Cognition

  2005cited by this paper
• Walking perception by walking observers.

  2005cited by this paper

• Grounded cognition and the representation of momentum: abstract concepts modulate mislocalization

  2025cites this paper
• Exploration of an adventure therapy case study through a trauma-informed neurobiological lens

  2025cites this paper
• Issues in Grounded Cognition and How to Solve Them – the Minimalist Account

  2025cites this paper
• The Relationship Between Brain Activation for Taking Others’ Perspective and Interoceptive Abilities in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An fMRI Study

  2024cites this paper
• Kneel, stand, prostrate: The psychology of prayer postures in three world religions

  2024cites this paper
• The bidirectional mapping of colour metaphor in power: The effect of colour-semantic integration and processing depth.

  2024cites this paper
• Designing for Embodied Sense-making of Mathematics: Perspectives on Directed and Spontaneous Bodily Actions

  2024cites this paper
• Emotional activation in a cognitive behavioral setting: extending the tradition with embodiment

  2024cites this paper
• A Partnership Perspective on Ecosocial Reciprocity for Cultural Transformation

  2024cites this paper
• Risk of desirable user experiences: insights from those who create, facilitate and accept mobile payments

  2024cites this paper
• Therapeutic Potential of Embodied Cognition for Clinical Psychotherapies: From Theory to Practice

  2024cites this paper
• Overactivation of posterior insular, postcentral and temporal regions during preserved experience of envy in autism

  2023cites this paper
• Étudier le vieillissement mnésique d’un point de vue incarné : réflexions sur l’apport des simulateurs de vieillissement

  2023cites this paper
• Embodied Processing at Six Linguistic Granularity Levels: A Consensus Paper

  2023cites this paper
• Three Perspectives on Embodied Learning in Virtual Reality: Opportunities for Interaction Design

  2023cites this paper
• Articulation posture influences pitch during singing imagery

  2023cites this paper
• Grounding Graph Theory in Embodied Concreteness with Virtual Reality

  2023cites this paper
• Il corpo nella psicologia cognitiva

  2022cites this paper
• What the study of spinal cord injured patients can tell us about the significance of the body in cognition

  2022cites this paper
• Both Physical and Virtual: On Immediacy in Esports

  2022cites this paper
• Investigating the Role of Having an Avatar in Virtual Reality on Pain Alleviation and Embodiment in Patients With Pain Using Electroencephalogram: A Neuroimaging Protocol

  2022cites this paper
• A Review of Embodied Metaphors of Power

  2022cites this paper
• Revisiting cross-cultural adaptation: An embodied approach

  2022cites this paper
• Nature Writing As Solace: The Embodied Ecopoetics of Barry Lopez and Mary Oliver

  2022cites this paper
• Expertise as Sensorimotor Tuning: Perceptual Navigation Patterns Mark Representational Competence in Science

  2021cites this paper
• A Developmental Framework for Embodiment Research: The Next Step Toward Integrating Concepts and Methods

  2021influential citation
• Building Embodied Spaces for Spatial Memory Neurorehabilitation with Virtual Reality in Normal and Pathological Aging

  2021cites this paper
• Aperture Crossing in Virtual Reality: Physical Fatigue Delays Response Time

  2021cites this paper
• Osteopathy and Mental Health: An Embodied, Predictive, and Interoceptive Framework

  2021cites this paper
• The Future of Embodiment Research: Conceptual Themes, Theoretical Tools, and Remaining Challenges

  2021cites this paper
• Az embodiment-paradigma testfelfogásának jelentősége az anorexia nervosa értelmezésében és kezelésében

  2021cites this paper
• Development of the Gender Embodiment Scale: Trans Masculine Spectrum

  2021cites this paper
• Expertise as Sensorimotor Tuning: Perceptual Navigation Patterns Mark Representational Competence in Science

  2021cites this paper
• Front in the mouth, front in the word: The driving mechanisms of the in-out effect.

  2020cites this paper
• The reverse Napoleon effect: The brand appreciation of looking up by tall people

  2020cites this paper
• Nodding and shaking of the head as simulated approach and avoidance responses.

  2020cites this paper
• How the Body Moves the Mind: Exploring the Effects of Perspective of Physical Sensation on Embodied States and Perception

  2020influential citation
• Bodies in Interaction, Bodies for Interaction: Discursive Psychology as an Approach to Embodiment

  2020cites this paper
• Effect of an upright (vs. stooped) posture on interpretation bias, imagery, and emotions.

  2020cites this paper
• Revisiting embodied approach and avoidance effects on behavior: The influence of sitting posture on purchases of rewarding foods

  2019cites this paper
• Training articulation sequences: A first systematic modulation of the articulatory in-out effect.

  2019cites this paper
• Action perception and motor imagery: Mental practice of action.

  2019cites this paper
• Leaning forward to increase approach motivation! The role of joy, exercise, and posture in achieving goals

  2019cites this paper
• Looking for language in space: spatial simulations in memory for language

  2019cites this paper
• Addressing the theory crisis in psychology

  2019cites this paper
• Reaching for the high note: judgments of auditory pitch are affected by kinesthetic position

  2019cites this paper
• Embodied memories: Reviewing the role of the body in memory processes

  2019cites this paper
• Embodied Cognition

  2019cites this paper
• Leaning forward to increase approach motivation! The role of joy, exercise, and posture in achieving goals

  2019cites this paper
• A nod and shake compatibility effect

  2018influential citation
• Embodied Situationism

  2018cites this paper
• Embodiment and Grounding in Cognitive Neuroscience

  2018cites this paper
• Embodiment: Reflective and Impulsive Processes

  2018cites this paper
• Getting the Embodied Emotional Survival Strategy

  2018cites this paper
• Embodied Perspectives on Behavioral Cognitive Enhancement

  2018cites this paper
• Truth is in the head. A nod and shake compatibility effect.

  2018cites this paper
• Embodied Perspectives on Behavioral Cognitive Enhancement

  2018cites this paper
• A voice of travail from a chronic pain patient: the lived-experience of a withdrawn disability living allowance

  2018cites this paper
• Body-specific influences on performance evaluation in realistic dynamic scenes

  2018cites this paper
• Miming neurological syndromes improves medical student's long-term retention and delayed recall of neurology.

  2018cites this paper
• Are monkeys intuitive Aristotelians? Associations between target size and vertical target position in long-tailed macaques

  2018cites this paper
• Expand your body when you look at yourself: The role of the posture in a mirror exposure task

  2018cites this paper
• Embodied Concepts and Mental Health.

  2018cites this paper
• Congruent bodily arousal promotes the constructive recognition of emotional words.

  2017cites this paper
• The Grounded Nature of Psychological Perspective-Taking

  2017cites this paper
• Embodiment, Enaction, and Culture: Investigating the Constitution of the Shared World

  2017cites this paper
• Multimodal priming of abstract constructs

  2016cites this paper
• Sources of mu activity and their functional connectivity in perceiving complexities in reciprocal social interactive motion: An exploratory study using the 'Namaste' task.

  2016cites this paper
• Minimal conditions of motor inductions of approach-avoidance states: The case of oral movements.

  2016cites this paper
• Embodiment of abstract categories in space… grounding or mere compatibility effects? The case of politics.

  2016cites this paper
• The role of fluency in preferences for inward over outward words.

  2016cites this paper
• Sequential Approach-Avoidance Movements

  2016cites this paper
• Mouth-watering words: Articulatory inductions of eating-like mouth movements increase perceived food palatability.

  2016cites this paper
• Shopping to and fro: Ideomotor compatibility of arm posture and product choice

  2016cites this paper
• The Role of Fluency in Oral Approach and Avoidance

  2015cites this paper
• Mechanisms of embodiment

  2015influential citation