TEDGlobal 2012
Amy Cuddy: Your body language may shape who you are
Filmed:
Readability: 3.3
56,233,256 views
Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy argues that "power posing" -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident -- can boost feelings of confidence, and might have an impact on our chances for success. NOTE: Some of the findings presented in this talk have been referenced in an ongoing debate among social scientists about robustness and reproducibility. Read "Criticisms & updates" below for more details as well as Amy Cuddy's response.
Amy Cuddy - Social psychologist
Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions — and perhaps even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions. Full bio
Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions — and perhaps even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
So I want to start by offering you a free
0
707
2798
00:19
no-tech life hack,
1
3505
2624
00:22
and all it requires of you is this:
2
6129
2621
00:24
that you change your posture for two minutes.
3
8750
4187
00:28
But before I give it away, I want to ask you to right now
4
12937
3424
00:32
do a little audit of your body and what you're doing with your body.
5
16361
3593
00:35
So how many of you are sort of making yourselves smaller?
6
19954
2415
00:38
Maybe you're hunching, crossing your legs,
7
22369
2721
00:40
maybe wrapping your ankles.
8
25090
924
00:41
Sometimes we hold onto our arms like this.
9
26014
3739
00:45
Sometimes we spread out. (Laughter)
10
29753
3671
00:49
I see you. (Laughter)
11
33424
2272
00:51
So I want you to pay attention to what you're doing right now.
12
35696
2515
00:54
We're going to come back to that in a few minutes,
13
38211
2214
00:56
and I'm hoping that if you learn to tweak this a little bit,
14
40425
3392
00:59
it could significantly change the way your life unfolds.
15
43817
3636
01:03
So, we're really fascinated with body language,
16
47453
4524
01:07
and we're particularly interested
17
51977
1959
01:09
in other people's body language.
18
53936
1964
01:11
You know, we're interested in, like, you know — (Laughter) —
19
55900
4221
01:16
an awkward interaction, or a smile,
20
60121
4398
01:20
or a contemptuous glance, or maybe a very awkward wink,
21
64519
4232
01:24
or maybe even something like a handshake.
22
68751
3238
01:27
Narrator: Here they are arriving at Number 10, and look at this
23
71989
2678
01:30
lucky policeman gets to shake hands with the President
24
74667
2676
01:33
of the United States. Oh, and here comes
25
77343
2488
01:35
the Prime Minister of the — ? No. (Laughter) (Applause)
26
79831
4927
01:40
(Laughter) (Applause)
27
84758
2088
01:42
Amy Cuddy: So a handshake, or the lack of a handshake,
28
86846
4294
01:47
can have us talking for weeks and weeks and weeks.
29
91140
2524
01:49
Even the BBC and The New York Times.
30
93664
2140
01:51
So obviously when we think about nonverbal behavior,
31
95804
3951
01:55
or body language -- but we call it nonverbals as social scientists --
32
99755
3388
01:59
it's language, so we think about communication.
33
103143
2880
02:01
When we think about communication, we think about interactions.
34
106023
2427
02:04
So what is your body language communicating to me?
35
108450
2839
02:07
What's mine communicating to you?
36
111289
2266
02:09
And there's a lot of reason to believe that this is a valid
37
113555
4218
02:13
way to look at this. So social scientists have spent a lot
38
117773
2535
02:16
of time looking at the effects of our body language,
39
120308
3392
02:19
or other people's body language, on judgments.
40
123700
2509
02:22
And we make sweeping judgments and inferences from body language.
41
126209
3439
02:25
And those judgments can predict really meaningful life outcomes
42
129648
3990
02:29
like who we hire or promote, who we ask out on a date.
43
133638
3793
02:33
For example, Nalini Ambady, a researcher at Tufts University,
44
137431
4685
02:38
shows that when people watch 30-second soundless clips
45
142116
4472
02:42
of real physician-patient interactions,
46
146588
3024
02:45
their judgments of the physician's niceness
47
149612
2833
02:48
predict whether or not that physician will be sued.
48
152445
2637
02:50
So it doesn't have to do so much with whether or not
49
155082
2194
02:53
that physician was incompetent, but do we like that person
50
157276
2145
02:55
and how they interacted?
51
159421
2696
02:58
Even more dramatic, Alex Todorov at Princeton has shown
52
162117
2935
03:00
us that judgments of political candidates' faces
53
165052
3677
03:04
in just one second predict 70 percent of U.S. Senate
54
168729
4587
03:09
and gubernatorial race outcomes,
55
173316
3231
03:12
and even, let's go digital,
56
176547
2222
03:14
emoticons used well in online negotiations
57
178769
4145
03:18
can lead to you claim more value from that negotiation.
58
182914
2832
03:21
If you use them poorly, bad idea. Right?
59
185746
3223
03:24
So when we think of nonverbals, we think of how we judge
60
188969
2897
03:27
others, how they judge us and what the outcomes are.
61
191866
3102
03:30
We tend to forget, though, the other audience
62
194968
1880
03:32
that's influenced by our nonverbals, and that's ourselves.
63
196848
3675
03:36
We are also influenced by our nonverbals, our thoughts
64
200523
3213
03:39
and our feelings and our physiology.
65
203736
2363
03:41
So what nonverbals am I talking about?
66
206099
3063
03:45
I'm a social psychologist. I study prejudice,
67
209162
2943
03:48
and I teach at a competitive business school,
68
212105
2727
03:50
so it was inevitable that I would become interested in power dynamics.
69
214832
4484
03:55
I became especially interested in nonverbal expressions
70
219316
3812
03:59
of power and dominance.
71
223128
2003
04:01
And what are nonverbal expressions of power and dominance?
72
225131
2658
04:03
Well, this is what they are.
73
227789
2164
04:05
So in the animal kingdom, they are about expanding.
74
229953
2878
04:08
So you make yourself big, you stretch out,
75
232831
3010
04:11
you take up space, you're basically opening up.
76
235841
2941
04:14
It's about opening up. And this is true
77
238782
2990
04:17
across the animal kingdom. It's not just limited to primates.
78
241772
3760
04:21
And humans do the same thing. (Laughter)
79
245532
3420
04:24
So they do this both when they have power sort of chronically,
80
248952
3711
04:28
and also when they're feeling powerful in the moment.
81
252663
3001
04:31
And this one is especially interesting because it really shows us
82
255664
2905
04:34
how universal and old these expressions of power are.
83
258569
4189
04:38
This expression, which is known as pride,
84
262758
2599
04:41
Jessica Tracy has studied. She shows that
85
265357
3048
04:44
people who are born with sight
86
268405
2112
04:46
and people who are congenitally blind do this
87
270517
2941
04:49
when they win at a physical competition.
88
273458
2314
04:51
So when they cross the finish line and they've won,
89
275772
1978
04:53
it doesn't matter if they've never seen anyone do it.
90
277750
2111
04:55
They do this.
91
279861
1086
04:56
So the arms up in the V, the chin is slightly lifted.
92
280947
3443
05:00
What do we do when we feel powerless? We do exactly
93
284390
2544
05:02
the opposite. We close up. We wrap ourselves up.
94
286934
4050
05:06
We make ourselves small. We don't want to bump into the person next to us.
95
290984
3464
05:10
So again, both animals and humans do the same thing.
96
294448
3041
05:13
And this is what happens when you put together high
97
297489
3080
05:16
and low power. So what we tend to do
98
300569
2311
05:18
when it comes to power is that we complement the other's nonverbals.
99
302880
4368
05:23
So if someone is being really powerful with us,
100
307248
2431
05:25
we tend to make ourselves smaller. We don't mirror them.
101
309679
2225
05:27
We do the opposite of them.
102
311904
2033
05:29
So I'm watching this behavior in the classroom,
103
313937
3199
05:33
and what do I notice? I notice that MBA students
104
317136
6786
05:39
really exhibit the full range of power nonverbals.
105
323922
3004
05:42
So you have people who are like caricatures of alphas,
106
326926
2468
05:45
really coming into the room, they get right into the middle of the room
107
329394
2990
05:48
before class even starts, like they really want to occupy space.
108
332384
3932
05:52
When they sit down, they're sort of spread out.
109
336316
1889
05:54
They raise their hands like this.
110
338205
2132
05:56
You have other people who are virtually collapsing
111
340337
2635
05:58
when they come in. As soon they come in, you see it.
112
342972
2324
06:01
You see it on their faces and their bodies, and they sit
113
345296
2538
06:03
in their chair and they make themselves tiny,
114
347834
1986
06:05
and they go like this when they raise their hand.
115
349820
3149
06:08
I notice a couple of things about this.
116
352969
1677
06:10
One, you're not going to be surprised.
117
354646
1737
06:12
It seems to be related to gender.
118
356383
2344
06:14
So women are much more likely to do this kind of thing than men.
119
358727
5465
06:20
Women feel chronically less powerful than men,
120
364192
2586
06:22
so this is not surprising. But the other thing I noticed is that
121
366778
3955
06:26
it also seemed to be related to the extent to which
122
370733
2845
06:29
the students were participating, and how well they were participating.
123
373578
3681
06:33
And this is really important in the MBA classroom,
124
377259
2582
06:35
because participation counts for half the grade.
125
379841
2681
06:38
So business schools have been struggling with this gender grade gap.
126
382522
4473
06:42
You get these equally qualified women and men coming in
127
386995
3272
06:46
and then you get these differences in grades,
128
390267
1996
06:48
and it seems to be partly attributable to participation.
129
392263
3260
06:51
So I started to wonder, you know, okay,
130
395523
3023
06:54
so you have these people coming in like this, and they're
131
398546
2524
06:56
participating. Is it possible that we could get people to fake it
132
401070
3671
07:00
and would it lead them to participate more?
133
404741
1972
07:02
So my main collaborator Dana Carney, who's at Berkeley,
134
406713
4665
07:07
and I really wanted to know, can you fake it till you make it?
135
411378
3555
07:10
Like, can you do this just for a little while and actually
136
414933
3030
07:13
experience a behavioral outcome that makes you seem more powerful?
137
417963
3823
07:17
So we know that our nonverbals govern how other people
138
421786
3552
07:21
think and feel about us. There's a lot of evidence.
139
425338
1693
07:22
But our question really was, do our nonverbals
140
427031
3112
07:26
govern how we think and feel about ourselves?
141
430143
3110
07:29
There's some evidence that they do.
142
433253
2690
07:31
So, for example, we smile when we feel happy,
143
435943
4636
07:36
but also, when we're forced to smile
144
440579
2178
07:38
by holding a pen in our teeth like this, it makes us feel happy.
145
442757
4415
07:43
So it goes both ways. When it comes to power,
146
447172
3081
07:46
it also goes both ways. So when you feel powerful,
147
450253
5215
07:51
you're more likely to do this, but it's also possible that
148
455468
3386
07:54
when you pretend to be powerful, you are more likely
149
458854
5606
08:00
to actually feel powerful.
150
464460
2428
08:02
So the second question really was, you know,
151
466888
3060
08:05
so we know that our minds change our bodies,
152
469948
2583
08:08
but is it also true that our bodies change our minds?
153
472531
4417
08:12
And when I say minds, in the case of the powerful,
154
476948
2727
08:15
what am I talking about?
155
479675
1372
08:16
So I'm talking about thoughts and feelings
156
481047
2166
08:19
and the sort of physiological things that make up our thoughts and feelings,
157
483213
3455
08:22
and in my case, that's hormones. I look at hormones.
158
486668
3208
08:25
So what do the minds of the powerful versus the powerless
159
489876
3103
08:28
look like?
160
492979
1231
08:30
So powerful people tend to be, not surprisingly,
161
494210
4296
08:34
more assertive and more confident, more optimistic.
162
498506
4224
08:38
They actually feel that they're going to win even at games of chance.
163
502730
2999
08:41
They also tend to be able to think more abstractly.
164
505729
4179
08:45
So there are a lot of differences. They take more risks.
165
509908
2606
08:48
There are a lot of differences between powerful and powerless people.
166
512514
2853
08:51
Physiologically, there also are differences on two
167
515367
3292
08:54
key hormones: testosterone, which is the dominance hormone,
168
518659
4065
08:58
and cortisol, which is the stress hormone.
169
522724
3663
09:02
So what we find is that
170
526387
3337
09:05
high-power alpha males in primate hierarchies
171
529724
3839
09:09
have high testosterone and low cortisol,
172
533563
3198
09:12
and powerful and effective leaders also have
173
536761
3526
09:16
high testosterone and low cortisol.
174
540287
2255
09:18
So what does that mean? When you think about power,
175
542542
2303
09:20
people tended to think only about testosterone,
176
544845
2425
09:23
because that was about dominance.
177
547270
1788
09:24
But really, power is also about how you react to stress.
178
549058
3470
09:28
So do you want the high-power leader that's dominant,
179
552528
3129
09:31
high on testosterone, but really stress reactive?
180
555657
2742
09:34
Probably not, right? You want the person
181
558399
2335
09:36
who's powerful and assertive and dominant,
182
560734
2284
09:38
but not very stress reactive, the person who's laid back.
183
563018
3688
09:42
So we know that in primate hierarchies, if an alpha
184
566706
6232
09:48
needs to take over, if an individual needs to take over
185
572938
3691
09:52
an alpha role sort of suddenly,
186
576629
2557
09:55
within a few days, that individual's testosterone has gone up
187
579186
3111
09:58
significantly and his cortisol has dropped significantly.
188
582297
3505
10:01
So we have this evidence, both that the body can shape
189
585802
3041
10:04
the mind, at least at the facial level,
190
588843
2366
10:07
and also that role changes can shape the mind.
191
591209
4129
10:11
So what happens, okay, you take a role change,
192
595338
2782
10:14
what happens if you do that at a really minimal level,
193
598120
2584
10:16
like this tiny manipulation, this tiny intervention?
194
600704
2413
10:19
"For two minutes," you say, "I want you to stand like this,
195
603117
2651
10:21
and it's going to make you feel more powerful."
196
605768
2783
10:24
So this is what we did. We decided to bring people
197
608551
4475
10:28
into the lab and run a little experiment, and these people
198
613026
4213
10:33
adopted, for two minutes, either high-power poses
199
617239
4429
10:37
or low-power poses, and I'm just going to show you
200
621668
2249
10:39
five of the poses, although they took on only two.
201
623917
2962
10:42
So here's one.
202
626879
2480
10:45
A couple more.
203
629359
2094
10:47
This one has been dubbed the "Wonder Woman"
204
631453
2818
10:50
by the media.
205
634271
2375
10:52
Here are a couple more.
206
636646
1322
10:53
So you can be standing or you can be sitting.
207
637968
2354
10:56
And here are the low-power poses.
208
640322
1985
10:58
So you're folding up, you're making yourself small.
209
642307
4063
11:02
This one is very low-power.
210
646370
1739
11:04
When you're touching your neck,
211
648109
1357
11:05
you're really protecting yourself.
212
649466
2626
11:07
So this is what happens. They come in,
213
652092
2585
11:10
they spit into a vial,
214
654677
1760
11:12
we for two minutes say, "You need to do this or this."
215
656437
3173
11:15
They don't look at pictures of the poses. We don't want to prime them
216
659610
1793
11:17
with a concept of power. We want them to be feeling power,
217
661403
3380
11:20
right? So two minutes they do this.
218
664783
2059
11:22
We then ask them, "How powerful do you feel?" on a series of items,
219
666842
3209
11:25
and then we give them an opportunity to gamble,
220
670051
2767
11:28
and then we take another saliva sample.
221
672818
2765
11:31
That's it. That's the whole experiment.
222
675583
1565
11:33
So this is what we find. Risk tolerance, which is the gambling,
223
677148
3706
11:36
what we find is that when you're in the high-power
224
680854
2898
11:39
pose condition, 86 percent of you will gamble.
225
683752
3498
11:43
When you're in the low-power pose condition,
226
687250
1945
11:45
only 60 percent, and that's a pretty whopping significant difference.
227
689195
4175
11:49
Here's what we find on testosterone.
228
693370
2480
11:51
From their baseline when they come in, high-power people
229
695850
3505
11:55
experience about a 20-percent increase,
230
699355
2362
11:57
and low-power people experience about a 10-percent decrease.
231
701717
4621
12:02
So again, two minutes, and you get these changes.
232
706338
2817
12:05
Here's what you get on cortisol. High-power people
233
709155
2752
12:07
experience about a 25-percent decrease, and
234
711907
3047
12:10
the low-power people experience about a 15-percent increase.
235
714954
4132
12:14
So two minutes lead to these hormonal changes
236
719086
2732
12:17
that configure your brain to basically be either
237
721818
3017
12:20
assertive, confident and comfortable,
238
724835
2928
12:23
or really stress-reactive, and, you know, feeling
239
727763
4008
12:27
sort of shut down. And we've all had the feeling, right?
240
731771
3856
12:31
So it seems that our nonverbals do govern
241
735627
2887
12:34
how we think and feel about ourselves,
242
738514
2321
12:36
so it's not just others, but it's also ourselves.
243
740835
2456
12:39
Also, our bodies change our minds.
244
743291
2427
12:41
But the next question, of course, is
245
745718
2406
12:44
can power posing for a few minutes
246
748124
1514
12:45
really change your life in meaningful ways?
247
749638
2291
12:47
So this is in the lab. It's this little task, you know,
248
751929
2646
12:50
it's just a couple of minutes. Where can you actually
249
754575
2596
12:53
apply this? Which we cared about, of course.
250
757171
2775
12:55
And so we think it's really, what matters, I mean,
251
759946
4177
13:00
where you want to use this is evaluative situations
252
764123
2588
13:02
like social threat situations. Where are you being evaluated,
253
766711
3453
13:06
either by your friends? Like for teenagers it's at the lunchroom table.
254
770164
3684
13:09
It could be, you know, for some people it's speaking
255
773848
2205
13:11
at a school board meeting. It might be giving a pitch
256
776053
3024
13:14
or giving a talk like this
257
779077
2857
13:17
or doing a job interview.
258
781934
2798
13:20
We decided that the one that most people could relate to
259
784732
2492
13:23
because most people had been through
260
787224
1237
13:24
was the job interview.
261
788461
1382
13:25
So we published these findings, and the media
262
789843
3953
13:29
are all over it, and they say, Okay, so this is what you do
263
793796
2594
13:32
when you go in for the job interview, right? (Laughter)
264
796390
3200
13:35
You know, so we were of course horrified, and said,
265
799590
2391
13:37
Oh my God, no, no, no, that's not what we meant at all.
266
801981
2185
13:40
For numerous reasons, no, no, no, don't do that.
267
804166
2775
13:42
Again, this is not about you talking to other people.
268
806941
2591
13:45
It's you talking to yourself. What do you do
269
809532
1859
13:47
before you go into a job interview? You do this.
270
811391
2809
13:50
Right? You're sitting down. You're looking at your iPhone --
271
814200
2266
13:52
or your Android, not trying to leave anyone out.
272
816466
2286
13:54
You are, you know, you're looking at your notes,
273
818752
2194
13:56
you're hunching up, making yourself small,
274
820946
1830
13:58
when really what you should be doing maybe is this,
275
822776
2292
14:00
like, in the bathroom, right? Do that. Find two minutes.
276
825068
3416
14:04
So that's what we want to test. Okay?
277
828484
1420
14:05
So we bring people into a lab, and
278
829904
2184
14:07
they do either high- or low-power poses again,
279
832088
3377
14:11
they go through a very stressful job interview.
280
835465
2632
14:13
It's five minutes long. They are being recorded.
281
838097
3616
14:17
They're being judged also, and the judges
282
841713
2511
14:20
are trained to give no nonverbal feedback,
283
844224
3975
14:24
so they look like this. Like, imagine
284
848199
1607
14:25
this is the person interviewing you.
285
849806
2284
14:27
So for five minutes, nothing, and this is worse than being heckled.
286
852090
4623
14:32
People hate this. It's what Marianne LaFrance calls
287
856713
3313
14:35
"standing in social quicksand."
288
860026
2091
14:38
So this really spikes your cortisol.
289
862117
1809
14:39
So this is the job interview we put them through,
290
863926
1702
14:41
because we really wanted to see what happened.
291
865628
2829
14:44
We then have these coders look at these tapes, four of them.
292
868457
3107
14:47
They're blind to the hypothesis. They're blind to the conditions.
293
871564
3172
14:50
They have no idea who's been posing in what pose,
294
874736
2785
14:53
and they end up looking at these sets of tapes,
295
877521
5090
14:58
and they say, "Oh, we want to hire these people," --
296
882611
2072
15:00
all the high-power posers -- "we don't want to hire these people.
297
884683
3422
15:04
We also evaluate these people much more positively overall."
298
888105
2785
15:06
But what's driving it? It's not about the content of the speech.
299
890890
4736
15:11
It's about the presence that they're bringing to the speech.
300
895626
2876
15:14
We also, because we rate them on all these variables
301
898502
2049
15:16
related to competence, like, how well-structured
302
900551
3091
15:19
is the speech? How good is it? What are their qualifications?
303
903642
2776
15:22
No effect on those things. This is what's affected.
304
906418
3056
15:25
These kinds of things. People are bringing their true selves,
305
909474
3279
15:28
basically. They're bringing themselves.
306
912753
1873
15:30
They bring their ideas, but as themselves,
307
914626
2223
15:32
with no, you know, residue over them.
308
916849
2536
15:35
So this is what's driving the effect, or mediating the effect.
309
919385
4931
15:40
So when I tell people about this,
310
924316
3368
15:43
that our bodies change our minds and our minds can change our behavior,
311
927684
2879
15:46
and our behavior can change our outcomes, they say to me,
312
930563
2976
15:49
"I don't -- It feels fake." Right?
313
933539
1867
15:51
So I said, fake it till you make it. I don't -- It's not me.
314
935406
3779
15:55
I don't want to get there and then still feel like a fraud.
315
939185
3175
15:58
I don't want to feel like an impostor.
316
942360
1519
15:59
I don't want to get there only to feel like I'm not supposed to be here.
317
943879
4412
16:04
And that really resonated with me,
318
948291
2187
16:06
because I want to tell you a little story about
319
950478
2058
16:08
being an impostor and feeling like I'm not supposed to be here.
320
952536
3410
16:11
When I was 19, I was in a really bad car accident.
321
955946
2941
16:14
I was thrown out of a car, rolled several times.
322
958887
3405
16:18
I was thrown from the car. And I woke up in a head injury
323
962292
3511
16:21
rehab ward, and I had been withdrawn from college,
324
965803
3592
16:25
and I learned that my I.Q. had dropped by two standard deviations,
325
969395
5712
16:31
which was very traumatic.
326
975107
2588
16:33
I knew my I.Q. because I had identified with being smart,
327
977695
2871
16:36
and I had been called gifted as a child.
328
980566
2012
16:38
So I'm taken out of college, I keep trying to go back.
329
982578
3200
16:41
They say, "You're not going to finish college.
330
985778
1724
16:43
Just, you know, there are other things for you to do,
331
987502
2877
16:46
but that's not going to work out for you."
332
990379
1898
16:48
So I really struggled with this, and I have to say,
333
992277
3884
16:52
having your identity taken from you, your core identity,
334
996161
2774
16:54
and for me it was being smart,
335
998935
1859
16:56
having that taken from you, there's nothing that leaves you feeling more powerless than that.
336
1000794
4409
17:01
So I felt entirely powerless. I worked and worked and worked,
337
1005203
2602
17:03
and I got lucky, and worked, and got lucky, and worked.
338
1007805
3134
17:06
Eventually I graduated from college.
339
1010939
2452
17:09
It took me four years longer than my peers,
340
1013391
1807
17:11
and I convinced someone, my angel advisor, Susan Fiske,
341
1015198
4558
17:15
to take me on, and so I ended up at Princeton,
342
1019756
2944
17:18
and I was like, I am not supposed to be here.
343
1022700
2851
17:21
I am an impostor.
344
1025551
1294
17:22
And the night before my first-year talk,
345
1026845
1581
17:24
and the first-year talk at Princeton is a 20-minute talk
346
1028426
2638
17:26
to 20 people. That's it.
347
1031064
2035
17:28
I was so afraid of being found out the next day
348
1033099
2887
17:31
that I called her and said, "I'm quitting."
349
1035986
2813
17:34
She was like, "You are not quitting,
350
1038799
1856
17:36
because I took a gamble on you, and you're staying.
351
1040655
2558
17:39
You're going to stay, and this is what you're going to do.
352
1043213
2191
17:41
You are going to fake it.
353
1045404
1357
17:42
You're going to do every talk that you ever get asked to do.
354
1046761
3780
17:46
You're just going to do it and do it and do it,
355
1050541
1739
17:48
even if you're terrified and just paralyzed
356
1052280
2969
17:51
and having an out-of-body experience, until you have
357
1055249
2578
17:53
this moment where you say, 'Oh my gosh, I'm doing it.
358
1057827
3165
17:56
Like, I have become this. I am actually doing this.'"
359
1060992
2966
17:59
So that's what I did. Five years in grad school,
360
1063958
2410
18:02
a few years, you know, I'm at Northwestern,
361
1066368
1741
18:04
I moved to Harvard, I'm at Harvard, I'm not really
362
1068109
2587
18:06
thinking about it anymore, but for a long time I had been thinking,
363
1070696
3500
18:10
"Not supposed to be here. Not supposed to be here."
364
1074196
2304
18:12
So at the end of my first year at Harvard,
365
1076500
2478
18:14
a student who had not talked in class the entire semester,
366
1078978
4566
18:19
who I had said, "Look, you've gotta participate or else you're going to fail,"
367
1083544
3207
18:22
came into my office. I really didn't know her at all.
368
1086751
2502
18:25
And she said, she came in totally defeated, and she said,
369
1089253
3982
18:29
"I'm not supposed to be here."
370
1093235
6045
18:35
And that was the moment for me. Because two things happened.
371
1099280
4128
18:39
One was that I realized,
372
1103408
1494
18:40
oh my gosh, I don't feel like that anymore. You know.
373
1104902
3234
18:44
I don't feel that anymore, but she does, and I get that feeling.
374
1108136
2682
18:46
And the second was, she is supposed to be here!
375
1110818
2637
18:49
Like, she can fake it, she can become it.
376
1113455
1804
18:51
So I was like, "Yes, you are! You are supposed to be here!
377
1115259
3740
18:54
And tomorrow you're going to fake it,
378
1118999
1435
18:56
you're going to make yourself powerful, and, you know,
379
1120434
3064
18:59
you're gonna — " (Applause)
380
1123498
3023
19:02
(Applause)
381
1126521
2039
19:04
"And you're going to go into the classroom,
382
1128560
4433
19:08
and you are going to give the best comment ever."
383
1132993
2424
19:11
You know? And she gave the best comment ever,
384
1135417
3005
19:14
and people turned around and they were like,
385
1138422
863
19:15
oh my God, I didn't even notice her sitting there, you know? (Laughter)
386
1139285
3444
19:18
She comes back to me months later, and I realized
387
1142729
2871
19:21
that she had not just faked it till she made it,
388
1145600
2284
19:23
she had actually faked it till she became it.
389
1147884
2724
19:26
So she had changed.
390
1150608
1823
19:28
And so I want to say to you, don't fake it till you make it.
391
1152431
4084
19:32
Fake it till you become it. You know? It's not —
392
1156515
2797
19:35
Do it enough until you actually become it and internalize.
393
1159312
3641
19:38
The last thing I'm going to leave you with is this.
394
1162953
2655
19:41
Tiny tweaks can lead to big changes.
395
1165608
4472
19:45
So this is two minutes.
396
1170080
2497
19:48
Two minutes, two minutes, two minutes.
397
1172577
1736
19:50
Before you go into the next stressful evaluative situation,
398
1174313
3246
19:53
for two minutes, try doing this, in the elevator,
399
1177559
2706
19:56
in a bathroom stall, at your desk behind closed doors.
400
1180265
3239
19:59
That's what you want to do. Configure your brain
401
1183504
2440
20:01
to cope the best in that situation.
402
1185944
1822
20:03
Get your testosterone up. Get your cortisol down.
403
1187766
2965
20:06
Don't leave that situation feeling like, oh, I didn't show them who I am.
404
1190731
3966
20:10
Leave that situation feeling like, oh, I really feel like
405
1194697
2352
20:12
I got to say who I am and show who I am.
406
1197049
1836
20:14
So I want to ask you first, you know,
407
1198885
2542
20:17
both to try power posing,
408
1201427
3781
20:21
and also I want to ask you
409
1205208
1886
20:22
to share the science, because this is simple.
410
1207094
3228
20:26
I don't have ego involved in this. (Laughter)
411
1210322
1877
20:28
Give it away. Share it with people,
412
1212199
1887
20:29
because the people who can use it the most are the ones
413
1214086
1861
20:31
with no resources and no technology
414
1215947
4158
20:36
and no status and no power. Give it to them
415
1220105
3126
20:39
because they can do it in private.
416
1223231
1283
20:40
They need their bodies, privacy and two minutes,
417
1224514
2829
20:43
and it can significantly change the outcomes of their life.
418
1227343
3150
20:46
Thank you. (Applause)
419
1230493
4186
20:50
(Applause)
420
1234679
6890
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Amy Cuddy - Social psychologistAmy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions — and perhaps even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions.
Why you should listen
Amy Cuddy wasn’t supposed to become a successful scientist. In fact, she wasn’t even supposed to finish her undergraduate degree. Early in her college career, Cuddy suffered a severe head injury in a car accident, and doctors said she would struggle to fully regain her mental capacity and finish her undergraduate degree.
But she proved them wrong. Today, Cuddy is a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, where she studies how nonverbal behavior and snap judgments affect people from the classroom to the boardroom. And her training as a classical dancer (another skill she regained after her injury) is evident in her fascinating work on "power posing" -- how your body position influences others and even your own brain.
Amy Cuddy | Speaker | TED.com