Gain Power through Body Language

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?

Hormones may tell on your abuser

            Ladies may not tell anybody about their unfortunate situation, yet people will find out sooner or later—rather sooner; their bodies will talk by themselves. How does it happen? This answer is provided by hormones such as oxytocin, prolactin or cortisol, which emanation ends up increasing drastically in moments of severe stress for an extended period.

            Professors Susana Pilar Gaytán, Ana María Gómez and María Rosario Pásaro from the Department of Physiology in the University of Seville, Spain affirm that, even though the violence has ceased, the level of these hormones does not decrease in a long time; hence, if a woman has been abused for a protracted period and then this dreadful episode has come to its conclusion, this probably is not the actual end of it. The main purpose for this assembly of practitioners to conduct this research is to find out the biological aspects that can make an individual vulnerable to this kind of attacks.

            The levels of oxytocin, prolactin and cortisol, among other hormones, are related to the resilience of the person—i.e., the capacity that a person possesses of getting her (or his, given that there are cases of men being abused) strength back from any hideous event such as having become a victim of mistreatment. Just a blood sample would be necessary to let everybody know that she spent part of her life with a sadistic human being.

            Which alternative do you think that would be more suitable to take? Would you just let your feelings out or go through a blood test? Let’s consider that the second option would give away the fact that the person could be lying.