Eddie Harmon-Jones, Philip A. Gable, Tom F. Price
We often lean toward  things or people we desire. Does the converse happen as well? Does simply  leaning forward increase patterns of neural activation associated with desire?  Desire can be conceptualized as similar to the broader construct, approach  motivation. Research has found that manipulated body posturesreduceapproach  motivation ( Harmon-Jones and Peterson, 2009; Riskind and Gotay, 1982). The  present experiment tested whether leaning forward, a body posture associated  with approach motivation, would increase approach motivation. We measured a  pattern of neural activation associated with approach motivation, relative left  frontal cortical activation, in response to pictures of appetitive (desserts)  vs. neutral objects (rocks) while participants leaned forward or reclined  backward. Leaning forward increased relative left frontal cortical activation to  appetitive vs. neutral pictures; the reclining condition produced no differences  between stimuli.