Two studies show that body movements enhance the favorability of competence judgments when these match the metaphoric forward movements described by text. In Experiment 1, participants whose body action matched the metaphoric action described in the text ascribed more competence characteristics to a politician than did control participants. In Experiment 2, participants whose body was merely prepared for movement also ascribed more competence characteristics to a politician than did control participants. In addition, the data from Experiment 2 showed that body manipulation had no effect on competence when participants read a non-metaphoric text, thus ruling out non-embodied explanations grounded in existing literatures on attitudes. Finally, there was no evidence that body manipulation affects warmth judgments.

--