Could workstation posture shift mood and behavior?

Clinical takeaway: Physical desk setup may influence mood and risk-taking, making posture and screen position worth considering when evaluating how everyday settings affect patients’ experiences and behavior.

Posture usually comes up in care because of back pain, neck strain, or workstation comfort. This study points to another possibility: Desk and screen position may also have effects on mood and risk-taking.

Rather than instructing participants to adopt a deliberate “power pose,” researchers changed the height and placement of a tablet. One setup encouraged participants to sit upright. The other required participants to lean forward and slouch. Importantly, most participants did not realize that the setup was meant to change their posture.

The study included 198 adults with an average age of about 20 years, most of whom were women. Participants completed a task in which they earned virtual money by inflating a balloon. Each pump increased the reward, but the money from that round was lost if the balloon burst.

Participants in the upright group averaged about 36 pumps on successful trials, compared to 32 pumps in the slouched group. The difference grew as the task continued.

The higher pump count reflected greater risk-taking, but not more failed rounds. Participants in the upright group did not burst more balloons. They also earned somewhat more virtual money, although the different in earnings was not statistically significant.

In a separate comparison, participants using a standard computer setup showed a risk-taking pattern similar to the slouched group. The upright group was the one that differed. Together, the results were consistent with greater risk-taking in the upright group than with simply more impulsive responses.

The emotional findings were narrower than the behavioral results. Simply being assigned to the upright or slouched setup did not produce an overall difference in mood. However, participants’ measured neck angle partly accounted for changes in reported pride, suggesting that the posture they actually adopted contributed to the emotional response.

The findings do not show that sitting upright improves mood or decision-making in patients, but they raise the possibility that desk height and screen position may affect more than comfort. Physical setup may be one contextual factor to consider when discussing the environments in which patients work and carry our daily activities.

“The findings do not mean that changing posture can dramatically transform a person’s life, but they do raise interesting questions about whether everyday features of our environment, such as workplace ergonomics, can subtly influence mood and behavior,” said Jorge Armony, a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at McGill University.

Source: Wainio-Theberge S, et al. (2026 Aug 3) Br J Psychol. ⁠Manipulating posture implicitly through environmental constraints influences mood and risk-taking behaviour