A critical thinking, based on what Amy Cuddy suggested at TED Talks

1. Course MSc Business and Organisational Psychology
Module code & Name M150PY – Critical Thinking for Business Psychology
Batch Code MBPS17
Title of Assignment Does Power-Posing increases your confidence?
Student Code MBPS17002
Student Name Tharaka Dayabandara

2. Does Power-Posing increases your
Confidence?

3. What is a Power-Pose
“expansive and open. When
you adopt one, you take up a
lot of space and hold your
arms and legs away from your
body.” (Lebowitz, and
Robinson 2015)
Wonder Woman in power pose

4. Elsesser, K. (2018) ‘Power Posing Is Back: Amy Cuddy
Successfully Refutes Criticism’ Forbes [online].
available from
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2018/04
/03/power -posing-is-back-amy-cuddy-successfully-
refutes-criticism/#39f620fa3b8e> [8 August 2018]
• Amy Cuddy’s TED talk on the benefits of power posing had over 46 million views
and became the second-most-popular TED talk in history
• She suggested that the “body language governs how we think and feel about
ourselves”, and thus, how we hold our bodies can have an impact on our minds. In
other words, by a powerful posture, ourselves can be made to feel powerful.
• People who took high-power poses, sensed more power compared to their low-
power-posed counterparts. And the power posing actually changed their body
chemistry [testosterone increased and cortisol decreased]
• After Cuddy’s TED talk, it seemed everyone was power posing.
• The critique against power posing seemed more aggressive than typical academic
inquiry. “So harsh was the criticism that, New York Times reporter who covered the
controversy described that those familiar with Cuddy’s research were afraid to
defend her work”.

5. Cuddy. A. (2012) ‘Your body language may shape who
you are’ TED Talks [online] . available from
<https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_l
anguage_shapes_who_you_are/up-next> [8th August
2018]
• Amy Cuddy was known as a gifted child. However after the head injury in a car
accident, she dropped her IQ by 2 standard deviations.
• As guided by her angel advisor Susan Fiske, learned to fake at presentations, through
Princeton, Northwestern and then in Harvard.
• Cuddy quotes “Don’t fake it till you make it, fake it till you become it”.
Results High
Power
Low
Power
Willingness
to Gamble
85% 60%
Testosterone
Change
20%
increase
10%
decrease
Cortisol
Change
25%
decrease
15%
increase
Findings of other studies Findings of this study
Non-verbals govern how
others think and feel
about us
Our non-verbals govern
how we think and feel
about ourselves
Our mind change our
body
Our bodies change our
mind

6. Can we trust these findings ??
• Sample size was not spoken of in these articles, only the original paper stated the
sample as 42 (Carney, Cuddy, and Yap 2010). Power of this sample size is questionable
in making a very generalized conclusion.
• Sample characteristics were not disclosed, hence it might be not a representation of
the population, to make a very generalized conclusion.
• Making results look better; differences in willingness to gamble was explained as
“pretty whopping difference”.
• Other factors such as risk appetites of individuals and cultural affects were not
controlled in this study.
• Possible non sequitur, in concluding “Our non-verbals govern how we think and feel
about ourselves” and “Our bodies change our mind”
• Conclusion of this study could have a possible emotional association, with her own
personal story. She was shedding tears during the TED talk.
• Carney, Amy Cuddy’s research colleague in 2010 study, claimed in 2017 in Discover
Magazine “I do not believe that ‘power pose’ effects are real.”

7. Ranehill, E., Dreber, A., Johannesson, M., Leiberg, S., Sul, S., &
Weber, R. A. (2015). Assessing the robustness of power posing:
No effect on hormones and risk tolerance in a large sample of
men and women. Psychological science, 26(5), 653-656.
• Sample size was 200. 49% female.
• Design of the study closely followed the method of initial study of Carney,
Cuddy, and Yap (2010).
Test Difference between High & Low Conclusion
Willingness to
Gamble
Mean difference : −0.033,
Confidence interval @95%: −0.085 - 0.019,
P = 0.215
No Statistical significance at
alpha = 5%
Feeling of
power
Mean difference : 0.245,
Confidence interval @95%: 0.044 - 0.446,
P = 0.017
Statistically Significant at
alpha = 5%
Testosterone
Change
Mean difference : −4.077,
Confidence interval @95%: −9.801 - 1.647,
P = 0.162
No Statistical significance at
alpha = 5%
Cortisol
Change
Mean difference : −0.028,
Confidence interval @95%: −0.078 - 0.022,
P = 0.272
No Statistical significance at
alpha = 5%
Refuted
Refuted
Refuted

8. Garrison, K. E., Tang, D., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2016). Embodying
power: A preregistered replication and extension of the power
pose effect. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(7),
623-630.
• 80% power, sample size was 280, to detect half size effects as in the earlier study
by Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010). but study had a sample of 305. 61.2% female.
• Copied the methods from Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010), with few exceptions
1. No saliva samples collected to measure hormones.
2. Included eye gazes to body posture, to increase power pose effect.
3. Added a hypothetical ultimatum game for gambling. [Binary Vs ordinal]
4. The incidental impression formation task or the ‘‘filler task’’ was removed, (i.e., looking at
faces) from posing as in original study Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010).
Test High Power Low Power Conclusion
Willingness to
Gamble
69%
95% CI:0.39-1.22
67%
95% CI: 0.38-1.18
No statistical difference
(P=0.167)
Feeling of power M = 2.38,
SD = 0.67
M = 2.55,
SD = 0.66
Inverse of the original was
statistically significant (P=0.02)
Refuted
Refuted

9. Ronay, R., Tybur, J. M., van Huijstee, D., & Morssinkhof, M.
(2017). Embodied power, testosterone, and overconfidence as a
causal pathway to risk-taking. Comprehensive Results in Social
Psychology, 2(1), 28-43.
• 80% power, sample size was 63,
but study had a sample of 108.
59% female.
• 53 - Power pose, 55 – low power
pose.
Test High Power Low Power Conclusion
Willingness to
Gamble
81.13% 89.09% No statistical difference
(P=0.23)
Feeling of power M = 2.12,
SD = 0.77
Mean: 1.95,
SD : 0.79
No statistical difference
(P=0.25)
Testosterone Change M = 41.11,
SD = 35.89
Mean: 47.69,
SD : 38.16
No statistical difference
(P = 0.53)
Cortisol Change M = 2.07,
SD = 1.53
Mean: 2.49,
SD : 1.72
No statistical difference
(P = 0.86)
• Measures were taken Identically from original research in 2010
Refuted
Refuted
Refuted
Refuted

10. Cultural Perspective
• Feeling of power and risk taking could have relationships with
the culture, based on Hofstedes’ six cultural dimensions of (De
Mooij, and Hofstede 2010; Li et al. 2013; Scholl et al. 2015)
• Some Hofstede dimensions, such as Power distance,
Individualism and Masculinity could be related to feeling of
power. Whilst risk taking and Uncertainty Avoidance could be
related (De Mooij, and Hofstede 2010; Mandel et al. 2017;
Zigang, and Fan 2004).
• Therefore culture could impact these research findings as it
measures the feeling of power and risk taking as confidence
measures.

11. Am I the right person to answer this?
• Knowledge gathered from the Critical Thinking Module, was
useful in comparing and critiquing information from different
sources.
• And the knowledge acquired from Project Planning &
Research Skills module on how to evaluate the quality of the
research material was also useful.
• The overall knowledge on the Business psychology, as a
masters student, has exposed me to understand and
undertake this study.
• Accessibility to relevant literature and ability to analyze
findings.
• Engineering and Six sigma background, helped to understand
statistics better in interpreting research findings.
• Openness to ideas, as a Continuous Improvement
professional, enables me to independently and impartially
consider validity of any study.

12. Summery
• Amy Cuddy claimed in 2010 that power posing increases testosterone,
decreases cortisol, increases the wiliness to gamble and increases the
feeling of power.
• Her TED talk in 2012, reached 46Million views and got lot of media
attention, New York Times, Forbes and BBC had articles on the subject.
• Ranehill et al. in 2015 confirmed her finding on feeling of power, but
declined all other findings.
• Garrison, Tang, and Schmeichel, in 2016, declined her finding on willingness
to gamble and reversed the finding on feeling of power.
• Ronay et al. in 2017 declined all her findings.
• Carney, Cuddys’ colleague in 2010 study refuted the original claims, In 2017.
• There is a possible cultural impact to the effect of power posing, which has
not been considered in any of these studies. This could be a reason behind
bidirectional findings.

13. References
Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J., and Yap, A. J. (2010) ‘Power posing: Brief nonverbal displays
affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance’. Psychological science 21(10),
1363-1368
De Mooij, M. and Hofstede, G., (2010) ‘The Hofstede model: Applications to global
branding and advertising strategy and research’. International Journal of
Advertising 29(1), 85-110
Discover Magazine (2017) Power Poses: Plus or Bust? [online] available from
<http://discovermagazine.com/2017/march/power-poses-plus-or-bust> [10
August 2018]
Elsesser, K. (2018) ‘Power Posing Is Back: Amy Cuddy Successfully Refutes Criticism’.
Forbes [online] 03 April. available from
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2018/04/03/power-posing-is-back-
amy-cuddy-successfully-refutes-criticism/> [8 August 2018]

14. References ..continued
Garrison, K. E., Tang, D., and Schmeichel, B. J. (2016) ‘Embodying power: A
preregistered replication and extension of the power pose effect’. Social
Psychological and Personality Science 7(7), 623-630
Lebowitz, S., and Robinson, M. (2015) ‘The 'Power Poses' That Will Instantly Boost
Your Confidence Levels. According to Harvard Business School professor Amy
Cuddy, projecting power is more about how you stand than how you talk’. Inc.
[online] available from 22 December <https://www.inc.com/business-
insider/amy-cuddy-the-poses-that-will-boost-your-confidence.html> [8 August
2018]
Li, K., Griffin, D., Yue, H., and Zhao, L. (2013) ‘How does culture influence corporate
risk-taking?’. Journal of Corporate Finance 23, 1-22
Mandel, N., Rucker, D. D., Levav, J., and Galinsky, A. D. (2017) ‘The compensatory
consumer behavior model: How self‐discrepancies drive consumer behavior’.
Journal of Consumer Psychology 27(1), 133-146

15. References ..continued
Ranehill, E., Dreber, A., Johannesson, M., Leiberg, S., Sul, S., and Weber, R. A. (2015)
‘Assessing the robustness of power posing: No effect on hormones and risk
tolerance in a large sample of men and women’. Psychological science 26(5), 653-
656
Ronay, R., Tybur, J. M., van Huijstee, D., and Morssinkhof, M. (2017) ‘Embodied power,
testosterone, and overconfidence as a causal pathway to risk-taking’.
Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology 2(1), 28-43
Scholl, A., Ellemers, N., Sassenberg, K., and Scheepers, D. (2015) ‘Understanding power
in social context: How power relates to language and communication in line with
responsibilities or opportunities’. in The Exercise of Power in Communication.
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 312-334
Your body language may shape who you are (2012) [online] TED Talks. June 2012,
available from <https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_
shapes_who_you_are/up-next> [8th August 2018]

16. References ..continued
Zigang, Z., & Fan, P. (2004). Cross-cultural challenges when doing business in China.
Singapore Management Review, 38(3), 61-73.