Just reading Yes! whcih looks like a silly business book, but is really about the science of how the external world affects our internal world. Many of the ideas are touched on in the latest Edge. If you don’t believe it about priming, go to the implicit tests page. How about an example: you’ll say “I don’t believe it”.

You give people a pencil, and have them watch cartoons. First, they watch with a pencil in their mouths horizontally, and then with a pencil in their mouths sticking straight out. And they are rating how funny the cartoons are. Cartoons are a lot funnier if you have a pencil in your mouth horizontally, than if you have the pencil sticking straight out. Nothing has been mentioned about mood or anything else. You are creating a facial shape that is the shape of a smile, or more of a frowning shape. That influences emotions.