Greet Angèle De Baets

This study addresses the absence of research on the effectiveness of intercultural communication training based on aikido. Scholars have described the potential of the Japanese martial art of aikido to provide a somatic metaphor for understanding arguments as harmonization rather than confrontation. This quantitative empirical study evaluates a one-day training programme that teaches an aikido interaction model to employees, employers, and entrepreneurs (n = 73). Participants were divided into two embodied groups, engaging in aikido exercises, and two comparison groups, receiving theoretical explanations without doing aikido. Pre- and post-tests with the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ-SF40) assessed the development of interaction skills, fingertip skin temperature measured tranquillity effects, and memory performance was evaluated. Qualitative analyses complemented the quantitative data. Firstly, the results showed that participants in the embodied group had lower flexibility on the multicultural personality scores, which is a positive finding as it is consistent with the supportive nature of the aikido interaction model taught. Secondly, the fingertip skin temperature measurements were inconclusive due to the low ambient temperatures caused by the 2020-2021 energy crisis and subsequent heating shutdown. Thirdly, participants in the embodied groups retained the messages they took home better than the comparison groups. In conclusion, learning an aikido interaction model through embodied techniques positively impacted intercultural communication support and memory performance. Incorporating embodiment techniques, such as aikido exercises, into communication training can increase overall effectiveness. This study contributes to the investigation of using martial arts as a metaphorical simulation of real-world activities in the classroom.