Your body language may shape who you are | Amy Cuddy | TED

Summary

The video script discusses the profound impact of body language on our lives, particularly focusing on the concept of 'power posing.' The speaker, Amy Cuddy, introduces the idea that by changing one's posture for just two minutes, individuals can significantly alter their hormonal balance, leading to increased feelings of power and confidence. She explains that both animals and humans exhibit certain body postures when feeling powerful or powerless, and these nonverbal cues can influence our thoughts, feelings, and even our physiological responses. Cuddy shares research findings that high-power poses can increase testosterone and decrease cortisol levels, while low-power poses have the opposite effect. She encourages the audience to adopt power poses before stressful situations to enhance their performance and self-perception. Her personal story of overcoming feelings of being an 'impostor' by 'faking it till you become it' adds a relatable and inspiring element to the talk. Cuddy concludes by emphasizing the potential for small changes in behavior to lead to significant shifts in outcomes, and she urges the audience to share this knowledge, especially with those who may lack resources and power.

Takeaways

• 🧍‍♂️ Posture can influence how we feel about ourselves and how others perceive us.
• 🤔 Nonverbal cues, such as body language, can significantly impact judgments and outcomes in social interactions.
• 📈 Power poses can lead to increased confidence and risk tolerance, as well as hormonal changes associated with power.
• 📉 Power poses can decrease stress levels, as indicated by a drop in cortisol levels.
• 🤝 The way we carry ourselves can affect our chances of success in situations like job interviews and public speaking.
• 🧘‍♀️ Even brief periods of power posing can lead to long-term changes in behavior and self-perception.
• 🚫 The speaker emphasizes that power posing should be done privately before a stressful situation, not during social interactions.
• 🧠 There is a bidirectional relationship between our bodies and minds, where each can influence the other.
• 🎓 The concept of 'fake it till you make it' is explored, suggesting that adopting a powerful stance can eventually lead to genuine feelings of power.
• 🤓 The speaker shares a personal story of overcoming feelings of inadequacy and 'impostor syndrome' through persistence and power posing.
• 💪 The message encourages individuals to try power posing and share the technique with others, especially those who may lack resources or status.

Q & A

What is the main premise of the speaker's 'no-tech life hack'?

The speaker suggests that changing one's posture for two minutes can significantly impact how one's life unfolds.

What does the speaker ask the audience to do at the beginning of the talk?

The speaker asks the audience to perform a self-audit of their body posture and how they are positioning themselves.

Why are we fascinated by body language according to the speaker?

We are fascinated by body language because it is a form of nonverbal communication that influences our judgments and inferences about others and can predict meaningful life outcomes.

What is the significance of a handshake in social interactions?

A handshake, or the lack thereof, can leave a lasting impression and can be a topic of discussion for a long time, as illustrated by the example of the policeman meeting the President of the United States.

How do social scientists study the effects of body language on judgments?

Social scientists examine how body language influences sweeping judgments and inferences, which can predict life outcomes such as hiring decisions or dating preferences.

What is the relationship between a physician's body language and the likelihood of being sued?

Researcher Nalini Ambady found that judgments of a physician's niceness based on 30-second soundless clips of interactions predict whether the physician will be sued.

What does Alex Todorov's research suggest about political candidates' faces?

Alex Todorov's research shows that judgments of political candidates' faces within one second can predict 70 percent of U.S. Senate and gubernatorial race outcomes.

What is the speaker's profession and area of interest?

The speaker is a social psychologist who studies prejudice and teaches at a competitive business school, with a particular interest in power dynamics and nonverbal expressions of power and dominance.

What are the nonverbal expressions of power and dominance in both the animal kingdom and humans?

In the animal kingdom and among humans, expressions of power and dominance involve expanding and making oneself big, stretching out, and taking up space.

What is the 'pride' expression as studied by Jessica Tracy, and how does it manifest in both sighted and congenitally blind individuals?

The 'pride' expression involves raising the arms in a V-shape with the chin slightly lifted. This expression is universal and innate, as both sighted and congenitally blind individuals exhibit it when they win a physical competition.

How do high-power and low-power individuals typically behave in a classroom setting?

High-power individuals tend to occupy the center of the room, sit spread out, and raise their hands confidently. Low-power individuals, on the other hand, may collapse into their seats, make themselves small, and raise their hands timidly.

What is the connection between body language and hormone levels?

High-power body language is associated with higher levels of testosterone (the dominance hormone) and lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), while low-power body language has the opposite hormonal profile.

What was the purpose of the experiment involving high-power and low-power poses?

The experiment aimed to determine if adopting high-power or low-power poses for two minutes could lead to changes in hormone levels and behaviors, such as risk tolerance and feelings of power.

What were the hormonal changes observed in the experiment?

High-power posers experienced a 20-percent increase in testosterone and a 25-percent decrease in cortisol. Low-power posers experienced a 10-percent decrease in testosterone and a 15-percent increase in cortisol.

How did the experiment's findings apply to a real-life scenario like a job interview?

The speaker suggests that adopting high-power poses before a job interview could help individuals feel more powerful and confident, leading to better performance and outcomes.

What is the speaker's personal experience with feeling like an impostor?

The speaker shares a story about struggling with feelings of being an impostor after a severe car accident that affected her academic performance and self-identity as a smart person.

What advice does the speaker give to the student who feels like she doesn't belong at Harvard?

The speaker encourages the student to 'fake it till she becomes it,' meaning to act powerful and confident until it becomes a natural part of her identity.

What is the final piece of advice the speaker gives to the audience?

The speaker advises the audience to try power posing, share the science behind it, and give it to those with no resources or power, as it can significantly change their life outcomes.

Outlines

00:00

🧍‍♂️ The Impact of Posture on Life and Power Dynamics

The speaker introduces the concept of a 'no-tech life hack' that involves changing one's posture for two minutes to potentially change life outcomes. They prompt the audience to assess their current body language, noting how people often make themselves smaller through hunching or crossing legs. The speaker highlights the fascination with body language, particularly its role in communication and first impressions. They discuss how body language can influence judgments and outcomes, such as hiring decisions or dating prospects, citing research that shows judgments based on brief interactions can predict significant life events like lawsuits against doctors or election results. The focus then shifts to nonverbal expressions of power and dominance, which are characterized by expansive movements and taking up space, as seen across the animal kingdom and in humans. The speaker introduces the idea that these expressions are universal and innate, as demonstrated by the instinctive 'pride' posture exhibited by both sighted and congenitally blind individuals upon winning.

05:02

🦅 Power and Body Language in the Classroom

The speaker discusses observing power dynamics through body language in an MBA classroom, noting a range of behaviors from expansive, dominant 'alpha' poses to more contracted, submissive ones. They point out that women tend to display less powerful body language more frequently than men, possibly due to feeling less powerful. The body language is linked to the level of participation in class, which is significant because it counts for half the grade. This observation leads to the question of whether adopting more powerful poses could increase participation and confidence. The speaker introduces research by Dana Carney on 'power posing,' exploring whether assuming a pose of power can lead to actual feelings of power and changes in behavior. They delve into the physiological effects of power poses, suggesting that even brief periods of assuming powerful stances can influence hormone levels, affecting how individuals feel about themselves and how they are perceived by others.

10:04

🧍‍♀️ Hormonal Changes from Power Posing

The speaker describes an experiment where participants were asked to hold high-power or low-power poses for two minutes, after which they reported feeling more or less powerful, respectively. The experiment also measured hormonal changes, showing an increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol for those in high-power poses, and the opposite for those in low-power poses. These hormonal changes are associated with feeling assertive, confident, and comfortable versus being stress-reactive and shut down. The speaker emphasizes that these nonverbal cues not only affect how others perceive us but also how we perceive ourselves. They suggest that power posing could be beneficial in evaluative or socially threatening situations, such as job interviews, where it could help individuals present themselves more effectively.

15:07

🎓 Overcoming Self-Doubt Through Power Posing

The speaker shares a personal story of feeling like an impostor and struggling with self-doubt after a severe car accident that affected their cognitive abilities. They recount their journey of overcoming these feelings by 'faking it till they made it,' eventually becoming a successful academic. This personal anecdote is used to illustrate the power of mindset and body language in shaping one's self-perception and success. The speaker encourages the audience to adopt power poses before stressful situations to change their mindset and behavior, thereby improving their outcomes. They emphasize the importance of not just faking it to make it, but faking it until one becomes it, internalizing the confidence and power that comes with these poses.

20:10

🤝 Sharing the Science of Power Posing

In conclusion, the speaker urges the audience to not only try power posing but also to share the science behind it with others. They highlight the potential for power posing to be a simple, accessible tool for those with limited resources, technology, or status, as it requires only privacy and a few minutes of time. The speaker encourages the audience to use this knowledge to configure their brains to cope better in stressful situations, aiming to leave those situations feeling that they have authentically expressed and shown who they are. The message is one of empowerment and the transformative potential of small, conscious changes in behavior.

Keywords

💡Posture

Posture refers to the position or bearing of the body, especially when standing or sitting. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of posture in influencing one's feelings and behavior, suggesting that changing one's posture for just two minutes can significantly impact life outcomes. The script illustrates this by asking the audience to perform an 'audit' of their body posture and later connects this to the broader theme of nonverbal communication and power dynamics.

💡Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication encompasses the various ways people communicate without using words, including body language, facial expressions, and gestures. The video discusses how nonverbal cues can influence judgments and outcomes in social interactions. The speaker uses examples such as handshakes and power poses to demonstrate how nonverbal communication can affect perceptions of power and dominance.

💡Power Dynamics

Power dynamics refer to the relationships and interactions between individuals characterized by differences in authority or status. The video explores how nonverbal expressions of power and dominance, such as expansive body language, can impact how individuals are perceived and treated by others. The concept is central to the video's theme, as it discusses how adopting powerful poses can alter one's hormonal balance and subsequently one's sense of power.

💡Hormones

Hormones are chemical messengers in the body that regulate various physiological processes. The speaker in the video discusses the role of two specific hormones: testosterone, associated with dominance, and cortisol, associated with stress. The hormonal changes that occur when individuals adopt high-power or low-power poses are highlighted as evidence of how body language can affect one's mental state.

💡Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern where individuals doubt their accomplishments and fear being exposed as a 'fraud.' The speaker shares a personal story of feeling like an imposter and not belonging in her academic environment at Princeton. This concept is integral to the video's narrative, as it relates to the idea that adopting a powerful stance can help overcome feelings of inadequacy and improve self-perception.

💡Risk Tolerance

Risk tolerance refers to an individual's willingness to take risks, particularly in uncertain situations. In the context of the video, the speaker presents research findings that adopting high-power poses can increase risk tolerance, as indicated by participants' willingness to gamble after assuming these poses.

💡Job Interview

A job interview is a formal meeting where an employer assesses a candidate's qualifications for a job. The video uses the job interview as a relatable example of a high-stress evaluative situation where adopting power poses could be beneficial. The speaker describes an experiment where participants adopted power poses before a mock job interview, which resulted in more positive evaluations from interviewers.

💡Presence

Presence in the video refers to the sense of self-assurance and confidence that an individual projects in social situations. The speaker argues that adopting high-power poses can enhance one's presence, making them appear more confident and competent to others, which can be particularly advantageous in scenarios like job interviews.

💡Stress

Stress is a physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension resulting from demanding circumstances. The video discusses how power poses can reduce cortisol levels, indicating a decrease in stress. The speaker suggests that by reducing stress through body language, individuals can better cope with challenging situations.

💡Social Quicksand

The term 'social quicksand' is used metaphorically in the video to describe a situation where an individual feels trapped and unable to respond effectively, such as during a job interview with unresponsive judges. The speaker uses this concept to illustrate the discomfort and stress that can be experienced in high-stakes social interactions.

💡Competence

Competence refers to the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. In the video, the speaker notes that high-power posers are rated more positively in job interviews, not because of the content of their speech, but because of their perceived competence, which is conveyed through their body language and presence.

Highlights

A free no-tech life hack is offered to change posture for two minutes to potentially significantly alter the way one's life unfolds.

People often make themselves smaller through hunching, crossing legs, or wrapping ankles, which can be changed to expand and take up more space.

Body language is a form of nonverbal communication that can lead to judgments about others, influencing important life outcomes like hiring or dating.

Research shows that judgments of a physician's niceness from brief interactions can predict the likelihood of them being sued.

Judgments of political candidates' faces in just one second can predict 70% of U.S. Senate and gubernatorial race outcomes.

Nonverbals also influence our own thoughts, feelings, and physiology, not just how others perceive us.

Power and dominance are expressed nonverbally through expanding and opening up the body, taking up space, which is seen across the animal kingdom.

Powerful people tend to be more assertive, confident, optimistic, and better able to think abstractly.

High-power individuals have higher testosterone and lower cortisol levels compared to low-power individuals.

Adopting high-power poses for just two minutes can lead to a 20% increase in testosterone and a 25% decrease in cortisol.

People who adopt high-power poses before a stressful situation are more likely to take risks and赌 (bet/risk).

Applying power poses before an evaluative situation like a job interview can change one's mindset and behavior to be more assertive and confident.

Power posing can help people feel less like impostors and more deserving of their success.

The speaker's own experience of feeling like an impostor and struggling to regain her identity after a traumatic accident.

The transformative power of faking confidence and competence until it becomes internalized and genuine.

The importance of sharing this simple, accessible technique with those who have the least resources and power, as it can significantly improve their life outcomes.

Making small tweaks like power posing for two minutes before a stressful situation can lead to big changes in mindset and behavior.

Transcripts

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

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 hunching, crossing your legs, maybe wrapping your ankles.

Sometimes we hold onto our arms like this.

Sometimes we spread out. (Laughter)

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 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 — (Laughter) —

an awkward interaction, or a smile,

or a contemptuous glance, or maybe a very awkward wink,

or maybe even something like a handshake.

Narrator: Here they are arriving at Number 10.

This lucky policeman gets to shake hands with the President of the United States.

Here comes the Prime Minister -- No. (Laughter) (Applause)

(Laughter) (Applause)

Amy Cuddy: So a handshake, or the lack of a handshake,

can have us talking for weeks and weeks and weeks.

Even the BBC and The New York Times.

So obviously when we think about nonverbal behavior,

or body language -- but we call it nonverbals as social scientists --

it's 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 a valid way to look at this.

So 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 and 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, Nalini Ambady, a researcher at Tufts University,

shows that when people watch 30-second soundless clips

of real physician-patient interactions,

their judgments of the physician's 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 and how they interacted?

Even more dramatic, Alex Todorov at Princeton

has shown us that judgments of political candidates' faces

in just one second predict 70 percent

of U.S. 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 when we think of nonverbals, 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 nonverbal 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. (Laughter)

So they do this both 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 complement the other's nonverbals.

So if someone is 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 nonverbals.

So you have people who are like caricatures of alphas,

really coming into 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 they come in, 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 notice a couple of 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 the grade.

So business schools have been struggling with this 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, 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 feel powerful,

you're more likely to do this,

but it's also possible that 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 it also true 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 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 optimistic.

They actually feel 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 in 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 you think about power,

people tended to think only about testosterone,

because that was 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, but 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 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 individual's testosterone has gone up

significantly and his 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 minutes,

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 are a couple more.

So you can be standing or you can be sitting.

And here are 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 protecting yourself.

So this is what happens.

They come in, they spit into a vial,

for two minutes, we 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.

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,

we find that when you are in the high-power pose condition,

86 percent of you will gamble.

When you're in the low-power pose condition,

only 60 percent, and that's a whopping significant difference.

Here's what we find on testosterone.

From their baseline when they come in,

high-power people experience about a 20-percent increase,

and low-power people experience about a 10-percent decrease.

So again, two minutes, and you get these changes.

Here's what you get on cortisol.

High-power people experience about a 25-percent decrease,

and the low-power people experience about a 15-percent 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 feeling sort of shut down.

And we've all had the 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.

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 ways?

This is in the lab, it's this little task, it's just a couple of minutes.

Where can you actually apply this?

Which we cared about, of course.

And so we think where you want to use this is evaluative situations,

like social threat situations.

Where are you being evaluated, either by your friends?

For teenagers, it's at the lunchroom table.

For some people it's 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 findings,

and the media are all over it,

and they say, Okay, so this is what you do

when you go in for the job interview, right?

(Laughter)

You know, so we were of course horrified, and said,

Oh my God, no, that's not what we meant at all.

For numerous reasons, 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.

You're sitting down. You're looking at your iPhone --

or your Android, not trying to leave anyone out.

You're looking at your notes,

you're hunching 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 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.

Imagine this is the person interviewing you.

So for five minutes, nothing, and this is worse than being heckled.

People hate this.

It's what Marianne LaFrance calls "standing in 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 end up looking at these sets of tapes,

and they say, "We want to hire these people,"

all the high-power posers.

"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.

Because we rate them on all these variables

related to competence, like, how well-structured is the speech?

How good is it? What are their 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 mediating the effect.

So when I tell people about this,

that our bodies change our minds and our minds can change our behavior,

and our behavior can change our outcomes, they say to me,

"It feels fake." Right?

So I said, fake it till you make it.

It's not me.

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.

Just, you know, there are 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 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 I got lucky,

and worked, and got lucky, and worked.

Eventually I graduated from college.

It took me four years longer than my peers,

and I convinced someone, my angel advisor, 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 talk,

and 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 are going to fake it.

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 at Harvard,

I'm not really thinking about it anymore, but for a long time I had been thinking,

"Not supposed to be here."

So at 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've gotta participate or else you're going to fail,"

came into my office. I really didn't know her at all.

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.

I don't feel that anymore, but she does, and I get that feeling.

And the second was, she is supposed to be here!

Like, she can fake it, she can become it.

So I was like, "Yes, you are! You are supposed to be here!

And tomorrow you're going to fake it,

you're going to make yourself powerful, and, you know --

(Applause)

And you're going to go into the classroom,

and you are going to give the best comment ever."

You know? And she gave the best comment ever,

and people turned around and were like,

oh my God, I didn't even notice her sitting there. (Laughter)

She comes back to me months later,

and I realized 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 want to say to you, don't fake it till you make it.

Fake it till you become it.

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.

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 feeling 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 try power posing,

and also I want to ask you to share the science, because this is simple.

I don't have ego involved in this. (Laughter)

Give it away. 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.

(Applause)