Science Says Power Posing Doesn't Work

Trending News: Stop It With The 'Power Posing,' Because Science It Doesn't Work

Long Story Short

New research indicates power posing is less effective than your natural posture when it comes to looking competent.

Long Story

What’s your power pose? The Obama? The Performer? The Wonder Woman? Amy Cuddy made a splash in 2012 with her TED talk on power poses and subsequent book Presence, both originating from a 2010 study that the social psychologist co-authored with Dana Carney and Andy Yap.

But also, what if it’s all horseshit? That’s the conclusion of new research suggesting you should forget about power poses; in terms of physical communication, striking a natural posture is much more effective.

The University of Hertfordshire study involved 106 adults viewing pictures of male and female models in a variety of attire and striking different poses. The participants then rated the models for perceived confidence, professionalism, approachability and likeliness of earning a high salary.

Previous research has found that people exhibiting strong poses are viewed as more competent than those striking a weak pose. UoH’s research backed up that idea, but it also found that those in a neutral pose were rated as the most competent of all.

“People were almost always seen to be more competent when they were posing naturally,” Daniel J. Gurney, the lead author on the study, told PsyPost in an interview. “The strong poses did make our models look more competent than the weak poses, but people generally thought more highly of them when they posed in a way that was natural to them.”

The message, Gurney said, was to not strike a pose in order to look competent. Instead, you’ll look competent if you just act naturally.

The original purpose of the study was to take posture and attire and see how the two nonverbal behaviours worked together to affect people’s perception of individuals. To that end, the study suggested both men and women benefit from dressing smartly, with women wearing casual attire judged more favourably than men in casual attire. For business attire, men had the edge in trouser suits but lost out to females in skirt suits.

Gurney’s next area of research? See how people’s impressions of attire line up with those actually modelling it.

As for the original power pose researchers, Carney has since reversed her position, saying in a recent report that “as evidence has come in over these past 2+ years, my views have updated to reflect the evidence. As such, I do not believe that ‘power pose’ effects are real.”

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

But shouldn’t we at least be mindful of posture? Where do we draw the line between working on our posture and power posing?

Drop This Fact

Amy Cuddy’s 2012 power posing TED talk has logged close to a whopping 41 million views.