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Stumped? Just cross your arms.
In this set of psychology experiments, one set of subjects was instructed to solve a puzzle with their hands on their thighs, while the other set was told to sit with their arms folded. The former group only lasted for about 30 seconds, while the arms-crossed students persevered for 55 seconds. In the second experiment, the arms-crossed students came up with more solutions.
Experiment 1 established that arm crossing in an achievement context led to greater persistence on an unsolvable anagram, demonstrating that proprioceptive cues can influence achievement behavior. Experiment 2 replicated this finding, and also revealed that the increased persistence elicited by arm crossing facilitated performance. A mediation analysis confirmed that this performance difference was due to greater persistence in the arms crossed condition… Future research may also seek to identify the precise mental constructs activated by arm crossing. Although the present work demonstrated a specific behavioral tendency elicited by arm crossing within achievement settings, the cognitive nature of this response has yet to be fully explored.
–Ron Friedman and Andrew Elliot, “The effect of arm crossing on persistence and performance”, European Journal of Social Psychology, April 2008
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