Research

Power posing became popular after Amy Cuddy told a TED audience about her research which indicated that when people assume an open or expansive stance (make themselves appear taller and wider), they subsequently feel more powerful. In her studies, Cuddy, along with colleagues, had participants assume either an expansive posture or a contractive posture (leaning inward, legs crossed) for a couple of minutes prior to completing tasks. The researchers found that after adopting an expansive pose, study participants felt more powerful, took more risk in a gambling task and did better.