People who employ a ‘power pose’ to boost their confidence should reconsider their stance, according to new research.
Scientists found that power poses – body positions that involve standing or sitting in a confident and relaxed manner – do not make you feel powerful.
The study also found that these body positions don’t make the poser more persuasive to others – another purported benefit of the stances.
People who employ a ‘power pose’, such as the ‘Wonder Woman’ (pictured) to boost their confidence should reconsider their stance. Scientists found that power poses do not make you feel powerful
Study lead author Dr Sean Duffy, from Rutgers University in New Jersey, said: ‘We found evidence showing that this claim is questionable both in terms of the subjective feelings of power or the ability to be persuaded.
‘The study also adds to the understanding of the role that the body plays in cognition and what we know about how embodied cognition might be.’
In the study, 200 volunteers adopted either a power pose or closed body posture while reading either a strong or a weak persuasive message on junk food taxation.
The team then gauged participants’ attitudes toward junk foods, subjective feelings of power, thought confidence, and openness.
When compared to weak messages, strong messages led to more persuasion, higher subjective power, more thought confidence, and more openness.
But body posture was not found to affect either of these outcomes.
The results showed that power stances had no effect on how persuasive one’s argument is, nor did the poses make speakers feel more powerful, as has been suggested in previous research.
Over the past eight years, the power pose trend has gained traction after it was proposed by Harvard Business School social psychologist Professor Amy Cuddy in a TED talk that has now been viewed 10 million times.
Professor Cuddy claims that physical poses expressing power have important psychological and physiological implications.
Over the past eight years, an idea proposed by Harvard Business School social psychologist Professor Amy Cuddy (pictured) has gained traction. Professor Cuddy claims that physical poses expressing power have important psychological and physiological implications
‘If you adopt a certain pose to look like Wonder Woman – to use a current meme – you feel like Wonder Woman,’ Dr Duffy said.
But some experts have expressed doubts as to whether this is true.
Previous research has suggested that power poses may change the hormones released by women to help them feel more dominant in the workplace.
Placing your hands face down on a table at a meeting is a good pose for closing a deal, Professor Cuddy claims in her TED talk. New research suggests that power stances may not be as effective as Professor Cuddy claims (stock image)
Professor Cuddy has previously suggested that people should put their hands above their head with their legs shoulder-width apart before heading into an interview to boost their confidence levels (stock image)
By standing on spread legs, holding their hands on their hips, and raising their chin for two full minutes, women have experienced as much as a 20 per cent rise in testosterone, and about a 25 per cent decrease in cortisol.
Some social psychologists feel that managing these hormones – responsible for confidence and anxiety, respectively – could be the key to closing the gender gap in executive offices around the country.
But the Rutgers research adds support to a growing body of evidence suggesting that power poses may not be as previous studies have claimed.
Those looking to pitch an idea in the workplace should put their feet up on the table and cross their hands behind their head, Professor Cuddy claims (stock image)
Professor Cuddy has previously claimed that tightly crossing your arms over your chest and rolling your shoulders back is the perfect power pose for speaking confidently in a meeting (stock image)