The abstract concept of importance is grounded in bodily experiences of weight.

What?

It turns out the weight of objects we interact with everyday actually affects how important we think that object might be. For example, let’s say you have two un-marked boxes with different objects hidden inside each box. One box weights 20 pounds, and other other box weights just 5 pounds, and you have to decide which box contains “more important” stuff. Naturally, you would probably think the heavier box is more important, but why?

Jostmann reasons that the link between weight and importance is rooted in our early childhood experiences, when we rapidly learn that heavy objects require more effort to deal with, not just in terms of strength but planning too. Our brain relies on these concrete physical experiences when it represents more abstract concepts, like importance. The two are then joined, so that physical experiences can affect abstract thought.

Have you ever smelled something, and been reminded of a person you knew or an event that happened years (even decades) ago? The same concept holds true here. Your brain has been associating heavier objects with “being important” for your entire life, whether you’re aware of it or not. This means as an adult, you might be subconsciously giving certain things preferential treatment based solely on the weight of that object.

A research team found that they could alter people’s judgement of importance just by getting them to answer questions using a heavier clipboard. In a series of short elegant experiments, a research team led by psychologist Nils Jostmann found that people holding a heavy clipboard would, for example, value foreign currencies more highly than those using a lighter clipboard.

What they are showing here is that, even though foreign money was the primary focus of this experiment, the clipboards were actually responsible for influencing their thoughts about the importance of foreign currency. Basically, the weight of a clipboard (object B) will change how they feel about about foreign money (object A).