Power posing

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Amy Cuddy explains in a public lecture "Power Posing" using the example of the comic superhero Wonder Woman .

Power Posing is a term from research on non-verbal communication and goes back to studies by Dana Carney, Amy Cuddy and Andy Yap in 2010. "Power Poses" are wide, open and space-consuming postures that - loud original research, and when taking these poses - lead to an increase in testosterone levels and a decrease in cortisol levels. Individuals who show power posing feel more powerful and behave more risk-taking. The effectiveness of Power Posing is questioned by many scientists and has been criticized after unsuccessful replication attempts.

Original research on power posing

In a study published in 2010, scientists Dana Carney, Amy Cuddy and Andy Yap introduced the term power posing on the basis of their previous research on the subject of non-verbal communication. This hypothesis was derived from the observation of the animal world, because in this an expressive and open posture is used, for example, to deter supposed enemies. In contrast, a hunched posture appears very weak and powerless.

In previous research on this topic, posture is the result of previous cognitive processing . In contrast, Carney, Cuddy and Yap investigate in their study whether power can also be explained in terms of embodiment ; So whether the intentional ingestion of Power Poses leads to physiological, psychological and behavioral changes.

The 42 test persons, randomly divided into two groups, were asked to take either two powerful poses ("high-power poses") or powerless poses ("low-power poses") for one minute each. Afterwards, the participants took part in a short gambling task to evaluate their willingness to take risks and were asked to rate their sense of power in a questionnaire. Before and after the experiment, saliva samples were taken from all test subjects to determine their cortisol and testosterone levels .

In their study, Carney, Cuddy and Yap report significant results for all four aspects examined. In the group of "high-power poses" the testosterone level was significantly higher, the cortisol level was significantly lower, the perceived feeling of power was significantly higher and behavior in the gambling task was significantly more risk-taking than in the group of "low-power poses".

With the results, the authors see the embodiment hypothesis of their research confirmed. Simply by adopting a powerful posture ("power poses") the feeling of power increases and the stress level decreases. They see implications for people who find themselves in stressful situations in which they have to prove themselves, such as in job interviews or at public lectures. Cuddy, Wilhelm, Yap, and Carney have therefore carried out another experiment on the subject of power posing before a stressful situation, a job interview. They assumed that "high-power poses" before an interview help the applicant to present himself confidently and positively during the interview. This assumption is confirmed after the experiment has been carried out, since the applicants who took "high-power poses" before the interview did better and were more likely to get an acceptance from the examiners than the applicants who took "low-power poses" before the interview "revenue.

Amy Cuddy presented her research in a TED Talk in 2012 , which was viewed more than 50 million times by 2019.

Replication attempts and criticism

The results of the studies on power posing have been criticized since their publication. In 2015, the Swedish scientist Eva Ranehill and colleagues reported the results of their extensive replication attempt of the original study by Carney, Cuddy and Yap. They concluded that they couldn't replicate the effects of power posing.

The statistical methods that may have led to the original erroneous results were reviewed by renowned researchers such as Uri Simonsohn and Joseph P. Simmons of the Wharton School in their 2016 article and concluded that previous research "failed on it suggested that there is an effect if we consider selective reporting ".

In the following years, various research groups attempted to experimentally investigate the power posing manipulation in various variations. Most of the results did not confirm the assumptions of Cuddy et al. In a study by Garrison et al. from 2016 the effect of posture manipulation with dominant vs. combined with a submissive look. Despite a large sample size, no influence on the willingness to take risks was determined and contrary to the original expectations, the power behavior was reduced by an expansive pose. Deuter et al. (2016) examined the effect of cognitive role assumption in combination with Cuddy’s manipulation of power in a stressful social task; While the assumption of roles had an influence on the cortisol and testosterone reaction after stress, the posture manipulation had no influence on hormonal, behavioral or subjective measures. If effects on hormone levels were found, these were not necessarily in line with Cuddy's original hypothesis. In a study by Smith et al. In 2017, participants faced a challenging task while engaging in high or low performing stances. The authors report no major effect of pose type on testosterone, cortisol, risk, or balance of power. However, they found an interaction between posture and competitive outcome in testosterone: while winners assigned a dominant posture had a small increase in testosterone levels, losers showed a reduction in testosterone levels.

Other scientists have tried to explain how the effect could have been found by ruling out factors such as gender differences in hormone levels. Another 11 studies from 2017 examined power posing. However, none of the studies could replicate the original results here either. Carney, Cuddy and Yap are also accused of using p-hacking to manipulate their results . Although Carney, Cuddy and Yap defend the results of their research in a contribution published in 2015, Dana Carney distanced herself a little later on the continuing criticism of the results of power posing: “I don't think the power posing effects are true. “Amy Cuddy continues to stick to the idea of ​​power posing.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dana R. Carney, Amy JC Cuddy, Andy J. Yap: Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels And Risk Tolerance. In: Sage Journals. aps - association for psychological science, September 20, 2010, accessed January 24, 2018 .
  2. ^ Dana R. Carney, Judith A. Hall, Lavonia Smith LeBeau: Beliefs about the nonverbal expression of social power . In: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior . tape 29 , no. 2 , June 2005, ISSN  0191-5886 , p. 105–123 , doi : 10.1007 / s10919-005-2743-z ( springer.com [accessed July 2, 2018]).
  3. ^ Amy JC Cuddy, Caroline A. Wilmuth, Andy J. Yap, Dana R. Carney: Preparatory Power Posing Affects Nonverbal Presence and Job Interview Performance .
  4. ↑ https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are
  5. ↑ Eva Ranehill, Anna Dreber, Magnus Johannesson, Susanne Leiberg, Sunhae Sul, Roberto A. Weber: Assessing the Robustness of Power Posing: No Effect on Hormones and Risk Tolerance in a Large Sample of Men and Women . tape 26 , no. 5 . Psychological Science, May 2015, pp. 653-656 .
  6. ↑ Simmons, Joseph P., and Uri Simonsohn. Power posing: P-curving the evidence. Psychological science 28.5 (2017): 687-693. PMID 28485698 doi : 10.1177 / 0956797616658563
  7. ^ Garrison, KE, Tang, D., & Schmeichel, BJ (2016). Embodying power: A preregistered replication and extension of the power pose effect. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7 (7), 623-630. doi : 10.1177 / 1948550616652209
  8. ↑ Deuter, CE, Schächinger, H., Best, D., & Neumann, R. (2016). Effects of two dominance manipulations on the stress response: Cognitive and embodied influences. Biological psychology, 119, 184-189. PMID 27381928 doi : 10.1016 / j.biopsycho.2016.06.004
  9. ^ Smith, KM, & Apicella, CL (2017). Winners, losers, and posers: The effect of power poses on testosterone and risk-taking following competition. Hormones and behavior, 92, 172-181. PMID 27840104 doi : 10.1016 / j.yhbeh.2016.11.003
  10. ^ Kai J. Jonas et al .: Power poses - where do we stand? In: Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology . tape 2 , no. 1 , January 2017, p. 139-141 .
  11. ↑ Joseph P. Simmons, Uri Simonsohn: Power Posing: P-Curving the Evidence . In: Psychological Science . tape 28 , no. 5 , March 20, 2017, ISSN  0956-7976 , p. 687-693 , doi : 10.1177 / 0956797616658563 ( sagepub.com [accessed July 2, 2018]).
  12. ^ Dana R. Carney: My position on “Power Poses”. Retrieved July 2, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Jesse Singal, Melissa Dahl: Here Is Amy Cuddy's Response to Critiques of Her Power-Posing Research. In: The Cut. New York Media LLC., September 30, 2016, accessed July 2, 2018 .