Power Poses: Do They Work?

Thought to be held in high regard as a hack for interviews, public speaking, and mental wellbeing, power posing is now subject to some debate. Here’s what the evidence says.

Introducing power posing

In 2012, Amy Cuddy delivered a TED Talk entitled ‘Your body language may shape who you are,’ which swung the concept of power posing into the view of mainstream consciousness.

Arguably popularised by a simple quote from Amy: "Tiny tweaks can lead to big changes," the talk suggested that adopting certain poses in various situations in day-to-day life, with enough consistency and awareness, could significantly improve a person’s confidence, reduce their stress levels and lead to them attracting success.

Despite the accomplishment of the TED Talk in the public realm, it was however met with a degree of scrutiny from the scientific community.

What are power poses?

Before we get into the evidence and the arguments for their use, it’s worth being aware that ‘power posing’ is simply defined as a contrast between ‘high-power’ and ‘low-power poses’.

High-power poses are expansive, open postures (such as standing with hands on hips or arms spread wide), while low-power poses are contractive and closed (like hunching the shoulders or crossing the arms).

What’s the evidence for power poses?

The original study by Cuddy in 2010, found that holding two one-minute power poses increased testosterone, lowered cortisol, boosted confidence and encouraged constructive risk-taking behaviour.

Moreover, participants in the ‘high-power group’ (those who held expansive, open poses) showed all three effects: hormonal shifts, increased willingness to gamble, and stronger self-reported feelings of power and control.

Why scientists started questioning power posing

However, by 2015, questions arose about the validity of the claims.

Early excitement about power posing fuelled by the 2010 study, which claimed it could boost confidence and influence behaviour, soon buckled. Follow-up research from various papers by other authors, raised some doubt, showing that the original results by Cuddy may not reliably be repeated.

What’s more, Dana Carney, the original lead author, later publicly stated she no longer believed in power poses, famously saying: "I do not believe that 'power pose' effects are real." 

Further blows for power posing evidence

After Carney’s retracted statement, a wave of studies compounded this narrative. They found no real effect on behaviour or hormones from power posing, only a boost in self-reported confidence. One of the clearest examples came from a series of studies published in 2017, led by Joseph Cesario. 

"Feeling powerful may feel good, but on its own does not translate into powerful or effective behaviours."

Lead researcher Joseph Cesario.

The authors backed this up and suggested the problem might be more to do with how bad people feel in contractive poses (like hunching over or folding in on yourself), rather than any special benefit from expansive ones (like standing tall with your chest open and arms spread).

So, what exactly do power poses offer for our confidence and self-perception?

A review in 2020 of 73 studies backed up the 2017 findings, showing no real benefit from power posing overall. However, it could be said that such results paint power posing in a negative light, with little consideration for the nuances and complexities of human behaviour.

Away from the setting of a controlled study, further evidence highlights in a more pragmatic sense that power posing can still boost confidence for some people, especially in stressful situations. The belief in it might also make it genuinely helpful due to a placebo effect. Cuddy stands by that fact

What can ultimately be gained from the power pose?

This debate on power posing has now spanned over a decade. There has been controversy over the design of the studies and the limits of ‘pop psychology’. Yet, power poses still remain ingrained in our culture, as much as our common sense.

Even if power poses don’t reliably change your hormones or behaviour, they might influence how you're perceived by others in that brief window of ‘first impression’, and, in turn, how you ultimately feel about yourself, all in as little as 100 milliseconds.

So yes, the perception of body language and posing absolutely counts, both in how we form impressions of others and how we form impressions of ourselves.

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