Breakthrough
research from Social Psychologist and Professor Amy Cuddy at Harvard Business
School, along with coauthors Dana Carney at Berkeley and Andy Yap at
Columbia proves that body language and body positioning directly
impact self-confidence and feelings of power. It is claimed that
body
language are non verbal behaviors that influence the inferences people make about
others. For example, people’s gestures, movements, and poses may determine who
gets promoted, who gets hired, or who gets asked out in a date. Why we think a
person is strong, powerful, smart, trustful, or confident, among others relates
directly with posture.
The study, conducted this year, revealed that if a person tweak
his/her non verbal behaviors in very easy ways for a short period of time, it
is going to make him/her feel
more powerful through physiological changes in
his/her body.
In the study, about 50 subjects
were chosen randomly. First, they were taken a hormone sample. Then, 25 of them
spent 2 minutes in power poses while the 25 left spent two minutes in low power
poses (in these positions the person gets really
small. Arms are crossed or by the sides, head is down, shoulders are rounded
and eye contact is averted. Often, the person looks sad or depressed). After this, they
were given the opportunity to gamble in order to test risk tolerance. Past 60
minutes, they were taken another hormone sample.
The study acknowledged that assuming power poses for a period of 2 minutes
increases the levels of testosterone—the dominant hormone related to confidence—
and decreases the levels of cortisol— the hormone related to stress and low
status.
The same was done with people before
a job interview and the ones who were chosen were those who had practiced power
poses during 2 minutes before entering the room.
The advice is: “Do not fake it until you make it. Fake it until
you become it.” Do not make yourself small. Stretch out. Have your feet and
arms spread. Practice power poses in private before an interview, an oral test,
or a speech. This will make you feel more confident and enthusiastic.
Do you think you can become a
more confident person by faking different power postures? If so, are you
willing to try them? What if you start faking your attitude in other aspects of
your life? Could it affect your social relationships?
