"This resume is to be read only on a hard surface"

"Touch remains perhaps the most underappreciated sense in behavioral research," Christopher C. Nocera, a graduate student in Harvard's psychology department, tells the Harvard Gazette.

A paper that Nocera and two colleagues just published in Science backs up that claim, demonstrating just how freakishly influential our tactile apparatus may be.

In one study, subjects were asked to review resumés that had been placed on either heavy or light clipboards. Resumés that were read on hard clipboards were judged to be more substantive than those read on softer ones.

Other test subjects engaged in mock negotiations over the price of a new car. Those who sat in firm chairs drove harder bargains than those ensconced in plusher seats.

When another group of subjects were told an ambiguous story about an interaction between an employee and a supervisor, and subsequently asked to offer an opinion, those who had handled a wood block beforehand judged the employee's behavior more harshly than those who had touched a soft blanket.

Nocera's co-authors were Joshua M. Ackerman, an assistant professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, and John A. Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale.

The authors write: "First impressions are liable to be influenced by the tactile environment, and control over this environment may be especially important for negotiators, pollsters, job seekers, and others interested in interpersonal communication. The use of 'tactile tactics' may represent a new frontier in social influence and communication." The authors did not offer any suggestions for how job-seekers might persuade human-resources personnel to use hard clipboards