Recent research suggests that the way people think and act is actually affected by ceiling height.

A research paper titled, "The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing People Use," found that, depending on the situation, ceiling height will benefit or impair consumer responses.

Variations in ceiling height can evoke concepts that affect how consumers process information. A person in a room with a 10-foot ceiling tends to make more free and abstract connections than a person in a room with a lower ceiling. A person in a room with an eight-foot ceiling would be more likely to focus on specifics.

This work could have important implications for retailers who wish to understand the thought processes of consumers at the point of purchase.

Dr. Mercola"s Comment:

I thought most  people would find this information useful. Although many may not be in a position to change their personal environment, it is always something you can put on your manifestation intention list.

For the longest time, professionals from a variety of industries -- realtors, event planners and contractors -- have intuitively understood people apparently prefer vaulted ceilings, but really didn"t know why. This very interesting business-related study may point toward some of the reasons.

However, it"s also an excellent example of how this kind of information can be misused by companies to influence your buying habits and decision-making process in ways that are often too subtle to be noticed.

An excellent book on the subject is Trust Us We"re Experts, which pulls together compelling data describing the science of creating public opinion in America. It traces modern public influence back to the early part of the last century, highlighting the work of Edward L. Bernays, called the Father of Spin. From his own amazing chronicle, "Propaganda," we learn how Edward L. Bernays took the ideas of his famous uncle Sigmund Freud and applied them to the emerging science of mass persuasion.

The only difference was that instead of using these principles to uncover hidden themes in the human unconscious, the way Freudian psychology does, Bernays used these same ideas to mask agendas and to create illusions that deceive and misrepresent, for marketing purposes.

To understand this better, you might also want to set aside some free time to watch The Journey of the Self, an acclaimed 2002 BBC documentary by Adam Curtis.

This four-part documentary explains the impact of Freud"s many theories about the mind that politicians and companies far and wide have mastered over the past century to engineer society"s consent and grow mass consumerism throughout the free world.

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