Also, each number combination could spell only one word. In one experiment, they used a set of number sequences that correspond to positive words, such as for "liebe" or love, which in English would be , and for "freund" meaning friend. Similarly, the set of negative words were like for "schleim" or slime and for "angst" or fear. The participants were asked to type the numbers on mobile phones with stickers obscuring the letters on the keypad so they could only see the numbers.
Volunteers believed they were participating in a study on ergonomics -- the science of fitting workplace environments and tools to users. After they had tapped out the numbers, the participants were asked to rate on a scale of 0 to 10 how pleasant an experience they had doing it. On average, volunteers preferred dialling numbers that related to positive words over those related to negative words.
Merely dialling the numbers that corresponded to those letters -- not even pushing them multiple times as one usually does to text words on a digit keypad -- was enough to activate the concepts in their minds, the researchers found. Volunteers were able to identify words that were implied by the preceding phone number more quickly than words that were had nothing to do with the preceding number sequence.
Topolinski relates these findings to a psychology concept called "embodiment" -- the idea that certain body movements can make you think about related ideas.
Clenching a fist makes people think about power, for example, and holding a heavy clipboard makes them think something is important. They just typed numbers in the cell phone. But I could induce 'slime' or 'love' -- any meaning.
This was a kind of a motor cipher that you can encode into the muscle system and use to induce a variety of ideas in participants. The work has practical implications, too.
In another experiment, Topolinski had volunteers type numbers that were supposed to go with specific types of businesses; a word that implied the German word for "jewelry" for a jeweler, or "apartment" for a rental office. After dialing the phone number and hearing an answering machine message, volunteers rated the business on its attractiveness. When the number matched the business, volunteers gave the business a higher rating than when they were mismatched; for example, a number for "wealth" for a financial counsel.
Business owners could take this effect into mind when choosing a phone number, Topolinski says. For example, "if you are a lawyer, try to get a phone number which implies the word 'justice,' or if you have a donation hotline, include the sequence for 'give.
And the feel-good factor was not limited to positive concepts in this experiment: the study participants "preferred the mortician whose phone number included for "Leiche," which means "corpse," over the mortician whose phone number corresponded to an unrelated word, like "Salad. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies.
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