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Power posing

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Amy Cuddy demonstrating her theory of "power posing" with a photo of the comic-book superhero Wonder Woman

Power posing is a controversial self-improvement technique or "life hack" in which people stand in a posture that they mentally associate with being powerful, in the hope of feeling more confident and behaving more assertively. Though the underlying science is disputed, its promoters continue to argue that people can foster positive life changes simply by assuming a "powerful" or "expansive" posture for a few minutes before an interaction in which confidence is needed. One popular image of the technique in practice is that of candidates "lock[ing] themselves in bathroom stalls before job interviews to make victory V's with their arms."[1]

Power posing was first suggested in a 2010 paper by Dana R. Carney, Amy Cuddy, and Andy Yap in the journal Psychological Science,[2] and came to prominence through a popular TED talk by Cuddy in 2012.[3] However, in 2015 several researchers began reporting that the effect could not be replicated,[4][5][6] and, in 2016, Carney issued a statement abandoning the theory.[7] Cuddy, however, continued her research,[8][1] claiming to have evidence that posture feedback can at least make people feel more powerful.[9][10][11] Today, power posing is often cited as an example of the replication crisis in the sciences.[12]

Initial claims

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The initial research on power posing was published in 2010. Dana Carney, Amy Cuddy, and Andy Yap claimed that high-power poses "produce power". The study included 42 participants, who were coached by researchers to assume a physical position of power. Hormone levels were measured before and after, and the authors stated that they found an increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol after posing.[1] The researchers themselves suggested a range of possible real-world applications:

These findings suggest that, in some situations requiring power, people have the ability to "fake it 'til they make it." Over time and in aggregate, these minimal postural changes and their outcomes potentially could improve a person's general health and well-being. This potential benefit is particularly important when considering people who are or who feel chronically powerless because of lack of resources, low hierarchical rank in an organization, or membership in a low-power social group."[2]

The researchers concluded that power posing induces lasting hormonal changes, which can lead to better outcomes in work-related situations, such as job interviews and wage negotiations.

Replication failures and meta-analyses

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The earliest criticism of Carney, Cuddy and Yap's work came from Steven Stanton, who noted their lack of attention to gender differences. "Carney et al. used a novel manipulation to ask an important question," he concluded, "but the degree to which their findings can be fully understood and implemented into future research is questionable without more complete analyses."[13]

A 2015 article, published in Psychological Science by Ranehill et al. reported the results of a conceptual replication of the study using a larger sample. The researchers confirmed Carney et al.'s results about felt power but could not detect any physiological or behavioral effects of power posing.[4] The statistical methods that may have led to the original erroneous findings were reviewed by Uri Simonsohn and Joseph Simmons of the Wharton School in a 2016 paper, concluding that the current body of research fails to "suggest the existence of an effect once we account for selective reporting".[5][14][15]

In the years that followed, attempts were made by various research groups to apply power posing manipulation in different contexts. The results did not support the assumptions made by Cuddy et al. In a 2016 study by Garrison et al. the effect of posture manipulation was combined with dominant vs. submissive gaze. However, no effect was found on risk taking and, in contrast to original expectations, adopting an expansive pose reduced feelings of power.[16] Deuter et al. (2016) investigated the effect of cognitive role taking and Cuddy's power posing manipulation in the Trier Social Stress Test; although role taking had an influence on the cortisol and testosterone response after stress, the posture manipulation had no effect on hormonal, behavioral or subjective measures.[17]

In a study conducted by Smith et al. in 2017, participants had to compete in a challenging task while they had to assume high or low power poses. The authors report no main effect of pose type on testosterone, cortisol, risk or feelings of power. However, they found an interaction between pose type and competition outcome on testosterone: while winners assigned to a high-power pose had small increases in testosterone levels, losers had a reduction in testosterone after holding high-power poses.[18]

In 2016, Dana Carney, who had been the lead author on the original 2010 paper and had supported the publication of the 2015 Ranehill et al. replication attempt, published a statement on the University of California, Berkeley website, stating that she no longer believed the effect was valid: "I do not believe that 'power pose effects' are real...the evidence against the existence of power poses is undeniable."[1][7][19][8]

Joseph Cesario, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University, who co-edits Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, arranged a special issue on power posing that published in June 2017; the issue included eleven new studies, along with a meta-analyses, which found that the effect of power posing on power behaviors was not replicated.[5][20][21][22][23] The published studies were designed to answer whether the power-posing hypothesis was real and included high quality research features like pre-registration of endpoints.[24] Carney co-authored the introduction to the issue, and noted that while the meta-analysis failed to find any effect in power behaviors, it did find a medium-sized effect in a feeling of power; she also wrote that the studies could not resolve whether the effect on a feeling of power was only an experimental artifact.[24]

In 2017, a meta-study by Cuddy et.al, surveyed 55 studies about power poses, and found "strong evidential value for postural-feedback (i.e., power-posing) effects and particularly robust evidential value for effects on emotional and affective states (e.g., mood and evaluations, attitudes, and feelings about the self)"[25]

A comprehensive meta-analytic review that analyzed 128 studies on the topic of body postures such as power posing, considering both published and unpublished papers, suggests that power posing has a reliable effect on thoughts and feelings (e.g., positive mood, self-esteem, feelings of dominance). However, power posing has no effect on physiological measures (e.g., hormone levels, blood pressure, skin conductance). Although the authors report an effect on behavioral measures, it remains unclear whether this effect actually exists or is due to selective reporting of significant results. In addition, the researchers point to limitations of the power posing literature: Few studies have included a control group (neutral posture), so it remains unclear whether the effect comes from dominant postures (so-called high power poses) or from submissive, slumped postures (so-called low power poses).[26]

Confounded tests of power posing

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Several researchers noted the lack of control groups in many power posing studies. Many studies had only compared power poses to contractive poses like slouching but had failed to include a normal pose as a control group.[27][26]

The problem falls under a general problem called the "poison-medicine" problem;[28] comparing a medicine (m) to a poison (p) would not establish if the medicine works in promoting longevity (y) if a baseline (neutral, i.e. placebo) condition is not included because if y(m) > y(p) this difference could arise for a multitude of reasons including that (a) m does not work and p reduces y, or (b) m reduced y but p reduces y more. That a difference is observed in y(m) and y(p) does not necessarily mean that it was caused by the expected treatment effect. This issue is often overlooked in testing some psychology theories wherein incorrect comparisons have been made (e.g., in Galinsky-type power priming studies, where a high and low power prime are often compared;[28] when a baseline is included, priming of this sort creates an asymmetric demand effect, which precludes making correct causal inference).[29][30]

Public attention

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Since its promotion in a 2010 Harvard Business School Working Knowledge post,[31] Amy Cuddy has been the most visible proponent of power posing in the public sphere. Her interest in "studying how people can become their aspirational selves" stems from her own experience of recovering from head trauma after a car accident.[1] The power posing "hack" gained wide attention after a TED talk she gave in 2012, where she demonstrated the posture and argued for its benefits.[3] The technique was then covered by CNN and Oprah Winfrey; it was the centerpiece of her 2015 book Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges; and by 2017 her TED talk had been viewed by about 47 million viewers, becoming the second most popular.[1]

In 2015, several news outlets in the United Kingdom said that some members of the UK Conservative Party had begun to adopt a "bizarre" wide stance at high-profile political events, which some suggested was based on Cuddy's 'power posing' advice.[32][33][34][35][36][37] While this was referred to by some as the "Tory power pose",[38][39] it had previously been used by Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.[40][41][39] Politicians publicly photographed in this stance include Sajid Javid, George Osborne, David Cameron,[42] Tony Blair,[43] and Theresa May.[44][43]

By 2016, public discussion of power posing had shifted to the difficulty of replicating the effect in subsequent studies. An extensive series of articles on power posing replication was published by New York magazine by Jesse Singal and other contributors in its Science of Us section.[8][19][45][46] There was intense controversy around these issues and Cuddy reported experiencing harassment, including death threats, after the findings were not replicated.[47] In the spring of 2017, Cuddy left Harvard but continues to promote power posing as life-improvement technique.[1][10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Dominus, Susan (18 October 2017). "When the Revolution Came for Amy Cuddy". New York Times Magazine.
  2. ^ a b Carney, Dana R.; Cuddy, Amy J.C.; Yap, Andy J. (10 January 2010). "Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance" (PDF). Psychological Science. 21 (10): 1363–1368. doi:10.1177/0956797610383437. PMID 20855902. S2CID 1126623.
  3. ^ a b Cuddy, Amy (June 2012). "Your body language may shape who you are". TED. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  4. ^ a b Ranehill, Eva; Dreber, Anna; Johannesson, Magnus; Leiberg, Susanne; Sul, Sunhae; Weber, Roberto A. (26 May 2015). "Assessing the Robustness of Power Posing: No Effect on Hormones and Risk Tolerance in a Large Sample of Men and Women" (PDF). Psychological Science. 26 (5): 653–6. doi:10.1177/0956797614553946. PMID 25810452. S2CID 28372856.
  5. ^ a b c Simmons, Joseph P. (10 June 2016). "Power Posing: P-Curving the Evidence". Data Colada. Psychological Science (forthcoming). SSRN 2791272.
  6. ^ King, Tracy (1 May 2018). "Sajid Javid and the strange science behind power poses". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  7. ^ a b Carney, Dana R. (nd). "My position on "Power Poses"" (PDF). Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Singal, Jesse; Dahl, Melissa (30 September 2016). "Here Is Amy Cuddy's Response to Critiques of Her Power-Posing Research". New York Magazine. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  9. ^ Cuddy, Amy J. C.; Schultz, S. Jack; Fosse, Nathan E. (2 March 2018). "P-Curving a More Comprehensive Body of Research on Postural Feedback Reveals Clear Evidential Value for Power-Posing Effects: Reply to Simmons and Simonsohn (2017)". Psychological Science. 29 (4): 656–666. doi:10.1177/0956797617746749. PMID 29498906. S2CID 3675226.
  10. ^ a b Elsesser, Kim (3 April 2018). "Power Posing Is Back: Amy Cuddy Successfully Refutes Criticism". Forbes. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  11. ^ Young, Emma (28 March 2018). "54-study analysis says power posing does affect people's emotions and is worth researching further". British Psychological Society Research Digest. Archived from the original on 23 May 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  12. ^ Aschwanden, Christine (24 March 2016). "Failure is moving science forward". FiveThirtyEight.
  13. ^ Stanton, Steven J. (2011). "The Essential Implications of Gender in Human Behavioral Endocrinology Studies". Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 5: 9. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2011.00009. PMC 3057631. PMID 21441984.
  14. ^ Gelman, Andrew (22 October 2016). "Another failed replication of power pose". Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  15. ^ Gelman, Andrew (18 October 2017). "Beyond "power pose": Using replication failures and a better understanding of data collection and analysis to do better science". Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  16. ^ Garrison, Katie E.; Tang, David; Schmeichel, Brandon J. (2016). "Embodying Power". Social Psychological and Personality Science. 7 (7): 623–630. doi:10.1177/1948550616652209. S2CID 53520700.
  17. ^ Deuter, Christian Eric; Schächinger, Hartmut; Best, Daniel; Neumann, Roland (September 2016). "Effects of two dominance manipulations on the stress response: Cognitive and embodied influences". Biological Psychology. 119: 184–189. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2016.06.004. PMID 27381928. S2CID 25385820.
  18. ^ Smith, Kristopher; Apicella, Coren (2017). "Winners, losers, and posers: The effect of power poses on testosterone and risk-taking following competition". Hormones and Behavior. 92: 172–181. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2016.11.003. PMID 27840104. S2CID 205807915.
  19. ^ a b Singal, Jesse (26 September 2016). "'Power Posing' Co-author: 'I Do Not Believe That 'Power Pose' Effects Are Real'". New York Magazine. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  20. ^ Morris, David Z. (2 October 2016). "'Power Poses' Researcher Dana Carney Now Says Effects are "Undeniably" False". Fortune.
  21. ^ Kluger, Jeffrey (26 September 2017). "'Power Poses' Don't Actually Work. Try These Confidence-Boosting Strategies Instead". Time. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  22. ^ Cesario, Joseph; Henion, Andy (10 September 2017). "Eleven New Studies Suggest 'Power Poses' Don't Work". DataColada. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  23. ^ Bartels, Meghan (13 September 2017). "'Power poses' don't really make you more powerful, nine more studies confirm". Newsweek. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  24. ^ a b Cesario, Joseph; Jonas, Kai J.; Carney, Dana R. (28 June 2017). "CRSP special issue on power poses: what was the point and what did we learn?". Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology. 2 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1080/23743603.2017.1309876.
  25. ^ Cuddy, Amy; Schultz, Jack; Fosse, Nathan (2018). "P-Curving a More Comprehensive Body of Research on Postural Feedback Reveals Clear Evidential Value for Power-Posing Effects: Reply to Simmons and Simonsohn". Psychological Science. 29 (4): 656–666. doi:10.1177/0956797617746749. PMID 29498906. S2CID 3675226.
  26. ^ a b Körner, Robert; Röseler, Lukas; Schütz, Astrid; Bushman, Brad J. (January 2022). "Dominance and prestige: Meta-analytic review of experimentally induced body position effects on behavioral, self-report, and physiological dependent variables". Psychological Bulletin. 148 (1–2): 67–85. doi:10.1037/bul0000356.
  27. ^ Crede, Marcus (2019). "A Negative Effect of a Contractive Pose is not Evidence for the Positive Effect of an Expansive Pose: Comment on Cuddy, Schultz, and Fosse (2018)". Meta-Psychology. 3. doi:10.15626/MP.2019.1723.
  28. ^ a b Lonati, Sirio; Quiroga, Bernardo F.; Zehnder, Christian; Antonakis, John (2018). "On doing relevant and rigorous experiments: Review and recommendations". Journal of Operations Management. 64 (1): 19–40. doi:10.1016/j.jom.2018.10.003. ISSN 1873-1317. S2CID 159436924.
  29. ^ Khademi, M. (1 February 2021). "The problem of demand effects in power studies: Moving beyond power priming". The Leadership Quarterly. 32 (4): 101496. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2021.101496. ISSN 1048-9843.
  30. ^ Sturm, Rachel E.; Antonakis, John (1 January 2015). "Interpersonal Power: A Review, Critique, and Research Agenda". Journal of Management. 41 (1): 136–163. doi:10.1177/0149206314555769. ISSN 0149-2063. S2CID 73651701.
  31. ^ Hanna, Julia (20 September 2010). "Power Posing: Fake It Until You Make It". Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.
  32. ^ Sharma, Ruchira (30 April 2018). "A body language expert on why Sajid Javid (and other Conservatives) use the bizarre 'power pose'". iNews. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  33. ^ Smith, Mikey (30 April 2018). "New Home Secretary Sajid Javid adopts awkward Tory 'wide standing' stance". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  34. ^ Bartlett, Evan (3 June 2016). "Tories keep doing that incredibly weird thing with their legs". indy100. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  35. ^ Wheeler, Brian (1 May 2018). "When is it OK to do a 'power pose'?". BBC News. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  36. ^ Belam, Martin (30 April 2018). "Sajid Javid and the return of the Tory power stance". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  37. ^ Tucker, Grant (5 May 2018). "Tory power stance ridiculed by speaking coach as pose of a right plonker". The Times. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  38. ^ "Newspaper headlines: Javid's 'fresh start' and UK faces care crisis". BBC News. 1 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  39. ^ a b Khaleeli, Homa (7 October 2015). "A body language lesson gone wrong: why is George Osborne standing like Beyoncé?". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  40. ^ Hanra, Hanna (3 May 2018). "what's with the weird power stance people keep doing?". i-D. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022.
  41. ^ Sharma, Ruchira (30 April 2018). "A body language expert on why Sajid Javid (and other Conservatives) use the bizarre 'power pose'". iNews. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  42. ^ Smith, Mikey (2 June 2016). "Has David Cameron finally caught the Tory 'wide standing' disease?". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  43. ^ a b Mills, Jen (30 April 2018). "Why do Tories keep standing like this?". Metro.
  44. ^ Belam, Martin (30 April 2018). "Sajid Javid and the return of the Tory power stance". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  45. ^ Singal, Jesse (27 September 2016). "There's an Interesting House-of-Cards Element to the Fall of Power Poses". New York Magazine. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  46. ^ Romm, Cari; Baer, Drake; Singal, Jesse; Dahl, Melissa (30 September 2016). "Why People Love(d) Power Posing: A Science of Us Conversation". New York Magazine. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  47. ^ Singal, Jesse (25 April 2017). "How Should We Talk About Amy Cuddy, Death Threats, and the Replication Crisis?". New York Magazine. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
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