Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The current study incorporates concepts from dynamicalsystems theory (DST) and embodied cognition topropose a novel method of answering traditionalquestions in social psychology. Namely, we wereinterested in understanding postural sway complexityduring the important interpersonal task of disclosing ahidden stigmatized identity (e.g., mental health disorder,history of sexual abuse). Using detrended fluctuationanalysis and multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis,we captured postural activity while people shared theirpersonal secrets to an imagined other. Results suggestthat disclosure context, defined by both disclosureconfidant and antecedent goals, is indeed embodied inour complex postural activity.