Your body language shapes who you are Amy Cuddy

so I want to start by offering you a

free no tech life hack and all it

requires of you is this that you change

your posture for two minutes but before

I give it away I want to ask you to

right now do a little audit of your body

and what you’re doing with your body so

how many of you are sort of making

yourselves smaller maybe you’re hunting

crossing your legs maybe wrapping your

ankles sometimes we hold on to our arms

like this sometimes we spread out I see

you so I want you to pay attention to

what you’re doing right now we’re going

to come back to that in a few minutes

and I’m hoping that if you sort of learn

to tweak this a little bit it could

significantly change the way your life

unfolds so we’re really fascinated with

body language and we’re particularly

interested in other people’s body

language you know we’re interested in

like you know a an awkward interaction

or a smile or a contemptuous glance or

maybe a very awkward wink or maybe even

something like a handshake here they are

arriving at number 10 and look at this

lucky policeman gets to shake hands with

the President of the United States oh

here comes the prime minister of it

so a handshake or the lack of a

handshake can have us talking for weeks

and weeks and weeks even the BBC in the

New York Times so so obviously when we

think about nonverbal behavior or body

language but we call it a non verbals as

social scientists its language so we

think about communication when we think

about communication we think about

interactions so what is your body

language communicating to me what’s mine

communicating to you and there’s a lot

of reason to believe that this is this

is a valid way to look at this as social

scientists have spent a lot of time

looking at the effects of our body

language or other people’s body language

on judgments and we make sweeping

judgments in inferences from body

language and those judgments can predict

really meaningful life outcomes like who

we hire or promote who we ask out on a

date for example Melanie on body a

researcher at Tufts University shows

that when people watch 30 minute a

30-second soundless clips of real

physician-patient interactions their

judgments of the physicians niceness

predict whether or not that physician

will be sued so it doesn’t have to do so

much with whether or not that physician

was incompetent but do we like that

person than how they interacted even

more dramatic Alex Todorov at Princeton

has shown us that judgments of political

candidates faces in just one second

predicts 70% of US Senate and

gubernatorial race outcomes and even

let’s go digital emoticons used well in

online negotiations can lead you to

claim more value from that negotiation

if you use them poorly bad idea right so

so when we think of non verbals we think

of how we judge others how they judge us

and what the outcomes are we tend to

forget though the other audience that’s

influenced by our nonverbals and that’s

ourselves we are also influenced by our

nonverbals our thoughts and our feelings

and our physiology

so what nonverbals am I talking about

I’m a social psychologist I study

prejudice and I teach at a competitive

business school so it was inevitable

that I would become interested in power

dynamics

I became especially interested in

nonverbal expressions of power and

dominance and what are non-verbal

expressions of power and dominance well

this is what they are so in the animal

kingdom

they are about expanding so you make

yourself big you stretch out you take up

space you’re basically opening up it’s

about opening up and this is true across

the animal kingdom it’s not just limited

to primates and humans do the same thing

so they do this both when they when they

have power sort of chronically and also

when they’re feeling powerful in the

moment and this one is especially

interesting because it really shows us

how universal and old these expressions

of power are this expression which is

known as Pride

Jessica Tracy has studied she shows that

people who are born with sight and

people who are congenitally blind do

this when they win at a physical

competition so when they cross the

finish line and they’ve won it doesn’t

matter if they’ve never seen anyone do

it they do this so the arms up in the V

the chin is slightly lifted what do we

do when we feel powerless we do exactly

the opposite we close up we wrap

ourselves up we make ourselves small we

don’t want to bump into the person next

to us so again both animals and humans

do the same thing and this is what

happens when you put together high and

low power so what we tend to do when it

comes to power is that we compliment the

others nonverbals so if someone’s being

really powerful with us we tend to make

ourselves smaller we don’t mirror them

we do the opposite of them so I’m

watching this behavior in the classroom

and what do I notice I notice that MBA

students really exhibit the full range

of power nonverbal so you have people

who are like caricatures of alphas like

really coming to the room they get right

into the middle of the room before class

even starts like they really want to

occupy space when they sit down they’re

sort of spread out they raise their

hands like this you have other people

who are virtually collapsing when they

come in as soon as they come and you see

it you see it on their faces and their

bodies and they sit in their chair and

they make themselves tiny and they go

like this when they raise their hand

I noticed a couple things about this one

you’re not going to be surprised it

seems to be related to gender so women

are much more likely to do this kind of

thing than men women feel chronically

less powerful than men so this is not

surprising but the other thing I noticed

is that it also seemed to be related to

the extent to which the students were

participating and how well they were

participating and this is really

important in the MBA classroom because

participation counts for half a grade so

business schools have been struggling

with its gender grade gap you get these

equally qualified women and men coming

in and then you get these differences in

grades and it seems to be partly

attributable to participation so I

started to wonder you know okay so you

have these people coming in like this

and they’re participating is it possible

that we could get people to fake it and

would it lead them to participate more

so my main collaborator Dana Carney

who’s at Berkeley and I really wanted to

know can you fake it till you make it

like can you do this just for a little

while and actually experience a

behavioral outcome that makes you seem

more powerful so we know that our

nonverbals govern how other people think

and feel about us there’s a lot of

evidence but our question really was do

our nonverbals govern how we think and

feel about ourselves there’s some

evidence that they do so for example

when we we smile when we feel happy but

also when we’re forced to smile by

holding a pen in our teeth like this it

makes us feel happy so it goes both ways

when it comes to power it also goes both

ways

so when you when you feel powerful

you’re more likely to do this but it’s

also possible that when you when you

pretend to be powerful you are more

likely to actually feel powerful so the

second question really was you know so

we know that our minds change our bodies

but is also true that that our bodies

change our minds and when I say minds in

the case of the powerful what am I

talking about so I’m talking about

thoughts and feelings and the sort of

physiological things that make up our

our thoughts and feelings and in my case

that’s hormones I look at hormones so

what do the minds of the powerful versus

the powerless look like so powerful

people tend to be not surprisingly more

assertive and more confident more more

optimistic they actually feel that

they’re going to win even at games of

chance they also tend to be able to

think more abstractly so there are a lot

of differences they take more risks

there are a lot of differences between

powerful and powerless people

physiologically there also are

differences on two key hormones

testosterone which is the dominance

hormone and cortisol which is the stress

hormone so what we find is that high

power alpha males and primate

hierarchies have high testosterone and

low cortisol and powerful and effective

leaders also have high testosterone and

low cortisol so what does that mean when

do you think about power 10 people

tended to think only about testosterone

because that wasn’t about dominance but

really power is also about how you react

to stress so do you want the high power

leader that’s dominant high on

testosterone butts really stress

reactive probably not right you want the

person who’s powerful and assertive and

dominant but not very stress reactive

the person who’s laid-back so we know

that in in primate hierarchies if an

alpha needs to take over if an

individual needs to take over an alpha

role sort of suddenly within a few days

that individuals testosterone has gone

up significantly and as cortisol has

dropped significantly so we have this

evidence both that the body can shape

the mind at least at the facial level

and also that role changes can shape the

mind so what happens okay you take a

role change what happens if you do that

at a really minimal level like this tiny

manipulation this tiny intervention for

two minutes you say I want you to stand

like this and it’s going to make you

feel more powerful so this is what we

did we decided to bring people into the

lab and run a little experiment and

these people adopted for two men

it’s either high power poses or low

power poses and I’m just going to show

you five of the poses although they took

on only two so here’s one a couple more

this one has been dubbed the Wonder

Woman by the media here a couple more so

you can be standing or you can be

sitting and here the low-power poses so

you’re folding up you’re making yourself

small this one is very low-power

when you’re touching your neck you’re

really kind of protecting yourself so

this is what happens

they come in they spit into a vial we

for two minutes say you need to do this

or this they don’t look at pictures of

the poses we don’t want to prime them

with a concept of power we want them to

be feeling power right so two minutes

they do this we then ask them how

powerful do you feel on a series of

items and then we give them an

opportunity to gamble and then we take

another saliva sample that’s it that’s

the whole experiment so this is what we

find risk tolerance which is the

gambling what we find is that when

you’re not when you’re in the high-power

post condition 86% of you will gamble

when you’re in the low-power post

condition only 60% and that’s a pretty

whopping significant difference here’s

what we find on testosterone from their

baseline when they come in high-power

people experience about a 20% increase

and low-power people experience about a

10% decrease so again two minutes and

you get these changes here’s what you

get on cortisol high-power people

experience about a 25% decrease and the

low-power people experience about a 15%

increase so two minutes lead to these

hormonal changes that configure your

brain to basically be either assertive

confident and comfortable or really

stress reactive and you know feeling

sort of shut down and we’ve all had that

feeling right so it seems that our

nonverbals do govern how we think and

feel about ourselves so it’s not just

others but it’s also ourselves

see also our bodies change our minds but

the next question of course is can power

posing for a few minutes really change

your life in meaningful

so this is in the lab it’s this little

task it’s just a couple of minutes you

know where can you actually apply this

which we cared about of course and so we

think it’s really what what what matters

I mean where you want to use this is

evaluative situations like social threat

situations where are you being evaluated

either by your friends like for

teenagers is at the lunchroom table it

could be you know for some people

speaking at a school board meeting it

might be giving a pitch or giving a talk

like this or doing a job interview we

decided that the one that most people

could relate to because most people had

been through was the job interview so we

published these these findings and the

media are all over and they say okay so

this is what you do when you go in for

the job interview right you know so we

were of course horrified and I said oh

my god no no no that’s not what we meant

at all for numerous reasons no no no

don’t do that again this is not about

you talking to other people it’s you

talking to yourself what do you do

before you go into a job interview you

do this right you’re sitting down you’re

looking at your iPhone or your Android

not trying to leave anyone out you are

you know you’re looking at your notes

you’re hunting up making yourself small

when really what you should be doing

maybe is this like in the bathroom right

do that find two minutes so that’s what

we want to test okay so we bring people

into a lab and they do a couple they do

either high or low power poses again

they go through a very stressful job

interview it’s five minutes long they

are being recorded they’re being judged

also and the judges are trained to give

no nonverbal feedback so they look like

this I imagine this is the person

interviewing you so for five minutes

nothing and this is worse than being

heckled people hate this it’s it’s what

Mariana France calls standing and social

quicksand so this really spikes your

cortisol so this is the job interview we

put them through because we really

wanted to see what happened we then have

these coders look at these tapes four of

them they’re blind to the hypothesis

they’re blind to the conditions they

have no idea who’s been posing in what

pose and they they end up looking at

these sets of tapes and they say oh we

want to hire these people all the

high-power

proposers we don’t want to hire these

people we also evaluate these people

much more positively overall but what’s

driving it it’s not about the content of

the speech it’s about the presence that

they’re bringing to the speech we also

because we rate them on all these

variables related to sort of competence

like how well-structured is the speech

how good is it what other qualifications

no effect on those things this is what’s

affected these kinds of things people

are bringing their true selves basically

they’re bringing themselves they bring

their ideas but as themselves with no

you know residue over them so this is

what’s driving the effect or mediate

mediating the effect so um when I tell

people about this that our bodies change

our minds and our minds can change our

behavior and our behavior can change

your outcomes they say to me I don’t it

feels fake right so I said fake it till

you make it like I don’t it’s not me

like I don’t want to get there and then

still feel like a fraud I don’t want to

feel like an impostor I don’t want to

get there only to feel like I’m not

supposed to be here and that really

resonated with me because I want to tell

you a little story about being an

impostor and feeling like I’m not

supposed to be here when I was 19 I was

in a really bad car accident I was

thrown out of a car rolled several times

I was thrown from the car and I woke up

in a head injury rehab Ward and I had

been withdrawn from college and I

learned that my IQ had dropped by two

standard deviations which was very

traumatic

I knew my IQ because I had identified

with being smart and I had been called

gifted as a child

so I’m taken out of college I keep

trying to go back they say you’re not

going to finish college like just you

know there’s there other things for you

to do but that’s not going to work out

for you so I really struggled with this

and I have to say having your identity

taken from you your core identity and if

for me it was being smart having that

taken from you there’s nothing that

leaves you feeling more powerless than

that so I felt entirely powerless I

worked and worked and worked and I got

lucky and worked and got lucky and

worked eventually I graduated from

college took me four years longer than

my peers and I convinced someone by my

angel

vizor Susan Fiske to take me on and so I

ended up at Princeton and I was like I

am not supposed to be here I am an

impostor and the night before my first

year talking the first year talk at

Princeton is a 20 minute talk to 20

people that’s it I was so afraid of

being found out the next day that I

called her and said I’m quitting she was

like you are not quitting because I took

a gamble on you and you’re staying

you’re going to stay and this is what

you’re going to do you were going to

fake it you’re going to take you’re

going to do every talk that you ever get

asked to do you’re just going to do it

and do it and do it even if you’re

terrified and just paralyzed and having

an out-of-body experience until you have

this moment where you say oh my gosh I’m

doing it like I have become this I am

actually doing this so that’s what I did

five years in grad school a few years

you know I’m at Northwestern I moved to

Harvard I’m in Harvard I’m not really

thinking about it anymore but for a long

time I had been thinking not supposed to

be here not supposed to be here so the

end of my first year at Harvard a

student who had not talked in class the

entire semester who I had said look you

got to participate or else you’re going

to fail came into my office I really

didn’t know her at all and she said she

came in totally defeated and she said

I’m not supposed to be here and that was

the moment for me because two things

happened one was that I realized oh my

gosh I don’t feel like that anymore you

know

I don’t feel that anymore but she does

and I get that feeling and the second

one she is supposed to be here like she

can fake it she can become it so he’s

like yes you are you are supposed to be

here and tomorrow you’re gonna fake it

you’re gonna make yourself powerful and

you know

and you’re gonna go you’re gonna go into

the classroom and you are gonna give the

best comment ever you know and she gave

the best comment ever and people turned

on they’re like oh my god I didn’t even

notice her sitting there you know she

comes back to me months later and I

realize that she had not just faked it

till she made it she had actually faked

it till she became it so she had changed

and so I I want to say to you don’t fake

it till you make it

fake it till you become it you know it’s

not do it enough until you actually

become it and internalize the last thing

I’m going to leave you with is this tiny

tweaks can lead to big changes so this

is two minutes two minutes two minutes

two minutes before you go into the next

stressful evaluative situation for two

minutes try doing this in the elevator

in a bathroom stall at your desk behind

closed doors that’s what you want to do

get configure your brain to cope the

best in that situation get your

testosterone up get your cortisol down

don’t leave that situation feeling like

oh I didn’t show them Who I am

leave that situation feel like I really

feel like I got to say Who I am and show

Who I am so I want to ask you first

you know both to tripower posing and

also I want to ask you to share the

science because this is simple I don’t

have ego involved in this give it away

like share it with people because the

people who can use it the most are the

ones with no resources and no technology

and no status and no power give it to

them because they can do it in private

they need their bodies privacy and two

minutes and it can significantly change

the outcomes of their life thank you

you