WEBVTT 00:00:00.707 --> 00:00:06.105 So I want to start by offering you a free no-tech life hack, 00:00:06.129 --> 00:00:08.726 and all it requires of you is this: 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:12.913 that you change your posture for two minutes. 00:00:12.937 --> 00:00:16.337 But before I give it away, I want to ask you to right now 00:00:16.361 --> 00:00:19.930 do a little audit of your body and what you're doing with your body. 00:00:19.954 --> 00:00:22.645 So how many of you are sort of making yourselves smaller? 00:00:22.669 --> 00:00:25.990 Maybe you're hunching, crossing your legs, maybe wrapping your ankles. 00:00:26.014 --> 00:00:29.729 Sometimes we hold onto our arms like this. 00:00:29.753 --> 00:00:33.400 Sometimes we spread out. (Laughter) 00:00:33.424 --> 00:00:35.672 I see you. 00:00:35.696 --> 00:00:38.687 So I want you to pay attention to what you're doing right now. 00:00:38.711 --> 00:00:41.045 We're going to come back to that in a few minutes, 00:00:41.069 --> 00:00:43.993 and I'm hoping that if you learn to tweak this a little bit, 00:00:44.017 --> 00:00:47.429 it could significantly change the way your life unfolds. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:47.453 --> 00:00:51.953 So, we're really fascinated with body language, 00:00:51.977 --> 00:00:55.876 and we're particularly interested in other people's body language. 00:00:55.900 --> 00:01:00.097 You know, we're interested in, like, you know — (Laughter) — 00:01:00.121 --> 00:01:04.495 an awkward interaction, or a smile, 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:08.727 or a contemptuous glance, or maybe a very awkward wink, 00:01:08.751 --> 00:01:11.965 or maybe even something like a handshake. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:11.989 --> 00:01:15.314 Narrator: Here they are arriving at Number 10. 00:01:15.338 --> 00:01:19.807 This lucky policeman gets to shake hands with the President of the United States. 00:01:19.831 --> 00:01:24.734 Here comes the Prime Minister -- No. (Laughter) (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:24.758 --> 00:01:27.409 (Laughter) (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:27.433 --> 00:01:31.116 Amy Cuddy: So a handshake, or the lack of a handshake, 00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:33.640 can have us talking for weeks and weeks and weeks. 00:01:33.664 --> 00:01:35.780 Even the BBC and The New York Times. 00:01:35.804 --> 00:01:39.731 So obviously when we think about nonverbal behavior, 00:01:39.755 --> 00:01:43.119 or body language -- but we call it nonverbals as social scientists -- 00:01:43.143 --> 00:01:45.999 it's language, so we think about communication. 00:01:46.023 --> 00:01:49.026 When we think about communication, we think about interactions. 00:01:49.050 --> 00:01:51.465 So what is your body language communicating to me? 00:01:51.489 --> 00:01:53.531 What's mine communicating to you? NOTE Paragraph 00:01:53.555 --> 00:01:59.503 And there's a lot of reason to believe that this is a valid way to look at this. 00:01:59.527 --> 00:02:01.771 So social scientists have spent a lot of time 00:02:01.795 --> 00:02:03.876 looking at the effects of our body language, 00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:06.185 or other people's body language, on judgments. 00:02:06.209 --> 00:02:09.624 And we make sweeping judgments and inferences from body language. 00:02:09.648 --> 00:02:13.614 And those judgments can predict really meaningful life outcomes 00:02:13.638 --> 00:02:17.407 like who we hire or promote, who we ask out on a date. 00:02:17.431 --> 00:02:22.092 For example, Nalini Ambady, a researcher at Tufts University, 00:02:22.116 --> 00:02:26.564 shows that when people watch 30-second soundless clips 00:02:26.588 --> 00:02:29.588 of real physician-patient interactions, 00:02:29.612 --> 00:02:32.421 their judgments of the physician's niceness 00:02:32.445 --> 00:02:35.058 predict whether or not that physician will be sued. 00:02:35.082 --> 00:02:36.740 So it doesn't have to do so much 00:02:36.764 --> 00:02:39.263 with whether or not that physician was incompetent, 00:02:39.287 --> 00:02:42.093 but do we like that person and how they interacted? 00:02:42.117 --> 00:02:45.028 Even more dramatic, Alex Todorov at Princeton 00:02:45.052 --> 00:02:48.705 has shown us that judgments of political candidates' faces 00:02:48.729 --> 00:02:52.673 in just one second predict 70 percent 00:02:52.697 --> 00:02:56.523 of U.S. Senate and gubernatorial race outcomes, 00:02:56.547 --> 00:02:58.745 and even, let's go digital, 00:02:58.769 --> 00:03:02.890 emoticons used well in online negotiations 00:03:02.914 --> 00:03:05.722 can lead you to claim more value from that negotiation. 00:03:05.746 --> 00:03:08.945 If you use them poorly, bad idea. Right? NOTE Paragraph 00:03:08.969 --> 00:03:12.042 So when we think of nonverbals, we think of how we judge others, 00:03:12.066 --> 00:03:14.944 how they judge us and what the outcomes are. 00:03:14.968 --> 00:03:17.064 We tend to forget, though, the other audience 00:03:17.088 --> 00:03:20.499 that's influenced by our nonverbals, and that's ourselves. 00:03:20.523 --> 00:03:23.712 We are also influenced by our nonverbals, 00:03:23.736 --> 00:03:26.075 our thoughts and our feelings and our physiology. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:29.138 So what nonverbals am I talking about? 00:03:29.162 --> 00:03:32.081 I'm a social psychologist. I study prejudice, 00:03:32.105 --> 00:03:34.808 and I teach at a competitive business school, 00:03:34.832 --> 00:03:39.292 so it was inevitable that I would become interested in power dynamics. 00:03:39.316 --> 00:03:43.104 I became especially interested in nonverbal expressions 00:03:43.128 --> 00:03:45.107 of power and dominance. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:45.131 --> 00:03:47.846 And what are nonverbal expressions of power and dominance? 00:03:47.870 --> 00:03:49.929 Well, this is what they are. 00:03:49.953 --> 00:03:52.807 So in the animal kingdom, they are about expanding. 00:03:52.831 --> 00:03:55.817 So you make yourself big, you stretch out, 00:03:55.841 --> 00:03:58.758 you take up space, you're basically opening up. 00:03:58.782 --> 00:04:00.704 It's about opening up. 00:04:00.728 --> 00:04:03.459 And this is true across the animal kingdom. 00:04:03.483 --> 00:04:05.508 It's not just limited to primates. 00:04:06.244 --> 00:04:08.928 And humans do the same thing. (Laughter) 00:04:08.952 --> 00:04:12.639 So they do this both when they have power sort of chronically, 00:04:12.663 --> 00:04:15.640 and also when they're feeling powerful in the moment. 00:04:15.664 --> 00:04:18.712 And this one is especially interesting because it really shows us 00:04:18.736 --> 00:04:22.734 how universal and old these expressions of power are. 00:04:22.758 --> 00:04:25.333 This expression, which is known as pride, 00:04:25.357 --> 00:04:27.586 Jessica Tracy has studied. 00:04:27.610 --> 00:04:30.493 She shows that people who are born with sight 00:04:30.517 --> 00:04:33.434 and people who are congenitally blind do this 00:04:33.458 --> 00:04:35.748 when they win at a physical competition. 00:04:35.772 --> 00:04:38.226 So when they cross the finish line and they've won, 00:04:38.250 --> 00:04:40.727 it doesn't matter if they've never seen anyone do it. 00:04:40.751 --> 00:04:42.044 They do this. 00:04:42.068 --> 00:04:44.566 So the arms up in the V, the chin is slightly lifted. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:44.590 --> 00:04:46.653 What do we do when we feel powerless? 00:04:46.677 --> 00:04:48.432 We do exactly the opposite. 00:04:48.456 --> 00:04:50.960 We close up. We wrap ourselves up. 00:04:50.984 --> 00:04:52.328 We make ourselves small. 00:04:52.352 --> 00:04:54.708 We don't want to bump into the person next to us. 00:04:54.732 --> 00:04:57.465 So again, both animals and humans do the same thing. 00:04:57.489 --> 00:05:01.445 And this is what happens when you put together high and low power. 00:05:01.469 --> 00:05:04.571 So what we tend to do when it comes to power 00:05:04.595 --> 00:05:07.224 is that we complement the other's nonverbals. 00:05:07.248 --> 00:05:09.655 So if someone is being really powerful with us, 00:05:09.679 --> 00:05:12.299 we tend to make ourselves smaller. We don't mirror them. 00:05:12.323 --> 00:05:13.913 We do the opposite of them. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:13.937 --> 00:05:17.112 So I'm watching this behavior in the classroom, 00:05:17.136 --> 00:05:19.649 and what do I notice? 00:05:19.673 --> 00:05:26.902 I notice that MBA students really exhibit the full range of power nonverbals. 00:05:26.926 --> 00:05:29.450 So you have people who are like caricatures of alphas, 00:05:29.474 --> 00:05:32.855 really coming into the room, they get right into the middle of the room 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:36.292 before class even starts, like they really want to occupy space. 00:05:36.316 --> 00:05:38.555 When they sit down, they're sort of spread out. 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:40.313 They raise their hands like this. 00:05:40.337 --> 00:05:42.948 You have other people who are virtually collapsing 00:05:42.972 --> 00:05:45.472 when they come in. As soon they come in, you see it. 00:05:45.496 --> 00:05:47.765 You see it on their faces and their bodies, 00:05:47.789 --> 00:05:50.583 and they sit in their chair and they make themselves tiny, 00:05:50.607 --> 00:05:52.945 and they go like this when they raise their hand. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:52.969 --> 00:05:54.827 I notice a couple of things about this. 00:05:54.851 --> 00:05:56.661 One, you're not going to be surprised. 00:05:56.685 --> 00:05:58.703 It seems to be related to gender. 00:05:58.727 --> 00:06:04.168 So women are much more likely to do this kind of thing than men. 00:06:04.192 --> 00:06:06.754 Women feel chronically less powerful than men, 00:06:06.778 --> 00:06:08.636 so this is not surprising. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:10.709 But the other thing I noticed 00:06:10.733 --> 00:06:13.375 is that it also seemed to be related to the extent 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:17.235 to which the students were participating, and how well they were participating. 00:06:17.259 --> 00:06:19.817 And this is really important in the MBA classroom, 00:06:19.841 --> 00:06:22.498 because participation counts for half the grade. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:22.522 --> 00:06:26.971 So business schools have been struggling with this gender grade gap. 00:06:26.995 --> 00:06:30.243 You get these equally qualified women and men coming in 00:06:30.267 --> 00:06:32.410 and then you get these differences in grades, 00:06:32.434 --> 00:06:35.499 and it seems to be partly attributable to participation. 00:06:35.523 --> 00:06:38.522 So I started to wonder, you know, okay, 00:06:38.546 --> 00:06:42.164 so you have these people coming in like this, and they're participating. 00:06:42.188 --> 00:06:44.717 Is it possible that we could get people to fake it 00:06:44.741 --> 00:06:46.741 and would it lead them to participate more? NOTE Paragraph 00:06:46.765 --> 00:06:51.354 So my main collaborator Dana Carney, who's at Berkeley, 00:06:51.378 --> 00:06:54.909 and I really wanted to know, can you fake it till you make it? 00:06:54.933 --> 00:06:57.460 Like, can you do this just for a little while 00:06:57.484 --> 00:07:00.136 and actually experience a behavioral outcome 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:01.862 that makes you seem more powerful? 00:07:01.886 --> 00:07:05.314 So we know that our nonverbals govern how other people 00:07:05.338 --> 00:07:07.719 think and feel about us. There's a lot of evidence. 00:07:07.743 --> 00:07:09.165 But our question really was, 00:07:09.189 --> 00:07:13.229 do our nonverbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves? NOTE Paragraph 00:07:13.253 --> 00:07:15.919 There's some evidence that they do. 00:07:15.943 --> 00:07:20.555 So, for example, we smile when we feel happy, 00:07:20.579 --> 00:07:22.733 but also, when we're forced to smile 00:07:22.757 --> 00:07:27.148 by holding a pen in our teeth like this, it makes us feel happy. 00:07:27.172 --> 00:07:29.090 So it goes both ways. 00:07:29.114 --> 00:07:32.896 When it comes to power, it also goes both ways. 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:35.444 So when you feel powerful, 00:07:35.468 --> 00:07:37.239 you're more likely to do this, 00:07:37.263 --> 00:07:43.441 but it's also possible that when you pretend to be powerful, 00:07:43.465 --> 00:07:46.864 you are more likely to actually feel powerful. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:46.888 --> 00:07:49.924 So the second question really was, you know, 00:07:49.948 --> 00:07:52.507 so we know that our minds change our bodies, 00:07:52.531 --> 00:07:56.924 but is it also true that our bodies change our minds? 00:07:56.948 --> 00:07:59.651 And when I say minds, in the case of the powerful, 00:07:59.675 --> 00:08:01.023 what am I talking about? 00:08:01.047 --> 00:08:03.189 So I'm talking about thoughts and feelings 00:08:03.213 --> 00:08:06.785 and the sort of physiological things that make up our thoughts and feelings, 00:08:06.809 --> 00:08:09.852 and in my case, that's hormones. I look at hormones. 00:08:09.876 --> 00:08:14.186 So what do the minds of the powerful versus the powerless look like? 00:08:14.210 --> 00:08:18.482 So powerful people tend to be, not surprisingly, 00:08:18.506 --> 00:08:22.706 more assertive and more confident, more optimistic. 00:08:22.730 --> 00:08:26.016 They actually feel they're going to win even at games of chance. 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:29.884 They also tend to be able to think more abstractly. 00:08:29.908 --> 00:08:32.528 So there are a lot of differences. They take more risks. 00:08:32.552 --> 00:08:35.791 There are a lot of differences between powerful and powerless people. 00:08:35.815 --> 00:08:38.635 Physiologically, there also are differences 00:08:38.659 --> 00:08:42.700 on two key hormones: testosterone, which is the dominance hormone, 00:08:42.724 --> 00:08:46.394 and cortisol, which is the stress hormone. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:46.418 --> 00:08:53.539 So what we find is that high-power alpha males in primate hierarchies 00:08:53.563 --> 00:08:56.737 have high testosterone and low cortisol, 00:08:56.761 --> 00:08:59.669 and powerful and effective leaders 00:09:00.287 --> 00:09:02.518 also have high testosterone and low cortisol. 00:09:02.542 --> 00:09:04.923 So what does that mean? When you think about power, 00:09:04.947 --> 00:09:07.246 people tended to think only about testosterone, 00:09:07.270 --> 00:09:09.034 because that was about dominance. 00:09:09.058 --> 00:09:12.504 But really, power is also about how you react to stress. 00:09:12.528 --> 00:09:15.633 So do you want the high-power leader that's dominant, 00:09:15.657 --> 00:09:18.375 high on testosterone, but really stress reactive? 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:19.940 Probably not, right? 00:09:19.964 --> 00:09:22.994 You want the person who's powerful and assertive and dominant, 00:09:23.018 --> 00:09:26.682 but not very stress reactive, the person who's laid back. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:26.706 --> 00:09:31.832 So we know that in primate hierarchies, 00:09:31.856 --> 00:09:34.924 if an alpha needs to take over, 00:09:34.948 --> 00:09:39.162 if an individual needs to take over an alpha role sort of suddenly, 00:09:39.186 --> 00:09:42.273 within a few days, that individual's testosterone has gone up 00:09:42.297 --> 00:09:45.778 significantly and his cortisol has dropped significantly. 00:09:45.802 --> 00:09:48.819 So we have this evidence, both that the body can shape 00:09:48.843 --> 00:09:51.185 the mind, at least at the facial level, 00:09:51.209 --> 00:09:55.314 and also that role changes can shape the mind. 00:09:55.338 --> 00:09:58.096 So what happens, okay, you take a role change, 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:00.680 what happens if you do that at a really minimal level, 00:10:00.704 --> 00:10:03.133 like this tiny manipulation, this tiny intervention? 00:10:03.157 --> 00:10:05.967 "For two minutes," you say, "I want you to stand like this, 00:10:05.991 --> 00:10:08.527 and it's going to make you feel more powerful." NOTE Paragraph 00:10:08.551 --> 00:10:11.481 So this is what we did. 00:10:11.505 --> 00:10:16.096 We decided to bring people into the lab and run a little experiment, 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:19.645 and these people adopted, for two minutes, 00:10:19.669 --> 00:10:23.129 either high-power poses or low-power poses, 00:10:23.153 --> 00:10:25.470 and I'm just going to show you five of the poses, 00:10:25.494 --> 00:10:27.055 although they took on only two. 00:10:27.079 --> 00:10:28.559 So here's one. 00:10:29.809 --> 00:10:31.098 A couple more. 00:10:31.792 --> 00:10:36.545 This one has been dubbed the "Wonder Woman" by the media. 00:10:36.646 --> 00:10:37.944 Here are a couple more. 00:10:37.968 --> 00:10:40.298 So you can be standing or you can be sitting. 00:10:40.322 --> 00:10:42.283 And here are the low-power poses. 00:10:42.307 --> 00:10:45.037 So you're folding up, you're making yourself small. 00:10:46.644 --> 00:10:48.085 This one is very low-power. 00:10:48.109 --> 00:10:52.068 When you're touching your neck, you're really protecting yourself. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:52.092 --> 00:10:54.089 So this is what happens. 00:10:54.207 --> 00:10:56.413 They come in, they spit into a vial, 00:10:56.437 --> 00:10:59.586 for two minutes, we say, "You need to do this or this." 00:10:59.610 --> 00:11:01.651 They don't look at pictures of the poses. 00:11:01.675 --> 00:11:04.202 We don't want to prime them with a concept of power. 00:11:04.226 --> 00:11:05.859 We want them to be feeling power. 00:11:05.883 --> 00:11:07.218 So two minutes they do this. 00:11:07.242 --> 00:11:10.427 We then ask them, "How powerful do you feel?" on a series of items, 00:11:10.451 --> 00:11:12.794 and then we give them an opportunity to gamble, 00:11:12.818 --> 00:11:15.559 and then we take another saliva sample. 00:11:15.583 --> 00:11:17.441 That's it. That's the whole experiment. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:17.465 --> 00:11:19.026 So this is what we find. 00:11:19.050 --> 00:11:20.930 Risk tolerance, which is the gambling, 00:11:20.954 --> 00:11:25.068 we find that when you are in the high-power pose condition, 00:11:25.092 --> 00:11:27.226 86 percent of you will gamble. 00:11:27.250 --> 00:11:29.346 When you're in the low-power pose condition, 00:11:29.370 --> 00:11:33.346 only 60 percent, and that's a whopping significant difference. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:33.370 --> 00:11:35.826 Here's what we find on testosterone. 00:11:35.850 --> 00:11:38.363 From their baseline when they come in, 00:11:38.387 --> 00:11:41.693 high-power people experience about a 20-percent increase, 00:11:41.717 --> 00:11:46.314 and low-power people experience about a 10-percent decrease. 00:11:46.338 --> 00:11:49.131 So again, two minutes, and you get these changes. 00:11:49.155 --> 00:11:51.132 Here's what you get on cortisol. 00:11:51.156 --> 00:11:54.930 High-power people experience about a 25-percent decrease, 00:11:54.954 --> 00:11:59.062 and the low-power people experience about a 15-percent increase. 00:11:59.086 --> 00:12:01.794 So two minutes lead to these hormonal changes 00:12:01.818 --> 00:12:03.438 that configure your brain 00:12:03.462 --> 00:12:07.739 to basically be either assertive, confident and comfortable, 00:12:07.763 --> 00:12:12.816 or really stress-reactive, and feeling sort of shut down. 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.603 And we've all had the feeling, right? 00:12:15.627 --> 00:12:20.811 So it seems that our nonverbals do govern how we think and feel about ourselves, 00:12:20.835 --> 00:12:23.267 so it's not just others, but it's also ourselves. 00:12:23.291 --> 00:12:25.694 Also, our bodies change our minds. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:25.718 --> 00:12:28.100 But the next question, of course, 00:12:28.124 --> 00:12:29.944 is, can power posing for a few minutes 00:12:29.968 --> 00:12:32.005 really change your life in meaningful ways? 00:12:32.029 --> 00:12:36.322 This is in the lab, it's this little task, it's just a couple of minutes. 00:12:36.346 --> 00:12:38.087 Where can you actually apply this? 00:12:38.111 --> 00:12:39.922 Which we cared about, of course. 00:12:39.946 --> 00:12:46.687 And so we think where you want to use this is evaluative situations, 00:12:46.711 --> 00:12:49.164 like social threat situations. 00:12:49.188 --> 00:12:51.744 Where are you being evaluated, either by your friends? 00:12:51.768 --> 00:12:53.825 For teenagers, it's at the lunchroom table. 00:12:53.849 --> 00:12:58.122 For some people it's speaking at a school board meeting. 00:12:58.146 --> 00:13:01.910 It might be giving a pitch or giving a talk like this 00:13:01.934 --> 00:13:04.708 or doing a job interview. 00:13:04.732 --> 00:13:07.400 We decided that the one that most people could relate to 00:13:07.424 --> 00:13:10.319 because most people had been through, was the job interview. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:10.343 --> 00:13:13.074 So we published these findings, 00:13:13.098 --> 00:13:14.659 and the media are all over it, 00:13:14.683 --> 00:13:16.758 and they say, Okay, so this is what you do 00:13:16.782 --> 00:13:18.855 when you go in for the job interview, right? NOTE Paragraph 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:19.886 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:19.910 --> 00:13:22.357 You know, so we were of course horrified, and said, 00:13:22.381 --> 00:13:24.653 Oh my God, no, that's not what we meant at all. 00:13:24.677 --> 00:13:26.917 For numerous reasons, no, don't do that. 00:13:26.941 --> 00:13:29.508 Again, this is not about you talking to other people. 00:13:29.532 --> 00:13:31.093 It's you talking to yourself. 00:13:31.117 --> 00:13:34.176 What do you do before you go into a job interview? You do this. 00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:36.742 You're sitting down. You're looking at your iPhone -- 00:13:36.766 --> 00:13:39.028 or your Android, not trying to leave anyone out. 00:13:39.052 --> 00:13:40.922 You're looking at your notes, 00:13:40.946 --> 00:13:42.946 you're hunching up, making yourself small, 00:13:42.970 --> 00:13:45.399 when really what you should be doing maybe is this, 00:13:45.423 --> 00:13:48.460 like, in the bathroom, right? Do that. Find two minutes. 00:13:48.484 --> 00:13:50.246 So that's what we want to test. Okay? 00:13:50.270 --> 00:13:52.064 So we bring people into a lab, 00:13:52.088 --> 00:13:55.441 and they do either high- or low-power poses again, 00:13:55.465 --> 00:13:58.073 they go through a very stressful job interview. 00:13:58.097 --> 00:14:01.689 It's five minutes long. They are being recorded. 00:14:01.713 --> 00:14:03.670 They're being judged also, 00:14:03.694 --> 00:14:08.175 and the judges are trained to give no nonverbal feedback, 00:14:08.199 --> 00:14:09.758 so they look like this. 00:14:09.985 --> 00:14:12.066 Imagine this is the person interviewing you. 00:14:12.090 --> 00:14:16.689 So for five minutes, nothing, and this is worse than being heckled. 00:14:16.713 --> 00:14:18.353 People hate this. 00:14:18.377 --> 00:14:22.093 It's what Marianne LaFrance calls "standing in social quicksand." 00:14:22.117 --> 00:14:23.902 So this really spikes your cortisol. 00:14:23.926 --> 00:14:26.212 So this is the job interview we put them through, 00:14:26.236 --> 00:14:28.433 because we really wanted to see what happened. 00:14:28.457 --> 00:14:31.540 We then have these coders look at these tapes, four of them. 00:14:31.564 --> 00:14:34.712 They're blind to the hypothesis. They're blind to the conditions. 00:14:34.736 --> 00:14:37.497 They have no idea who's been posing in what pose, 00:14:37.521 --> 00:14:42.587 and they end up looking at these sets of tapes, 00:14:42.611 --> 00:14:44.759 and they say, "We want to hire these people," 00:14:44.783 --> 00:14:46.284 all the high-power posers. 00:14:46.308 --> 00:14:48.081 "We don't want to hire these people. 00:14:48.105 --> 00:14:51.922 We also evaluate these people much more positively overall." 00:14:51.946 --> 00:14:53.586 But what's driving it? 00:14:53.610 --> 00:14:55.602 It's not about the content of the speech. 00:14:55.626 --> 00:14:58.478 It's about the presence that they're bringing to the speech. 00:14:58.502 --> 00:15:00.979 Because we rate them on all these variables 00:15:01.003 --> 00:15:04.542 related to competence, like, how well-structured is the speech? 00:15:04.566 --> 00:15:06.800 How good is it? What are their qualifications? 00:15:06.824 --> 00:15:09.450 No effect on those things. This is what's affected. 00:15:09.474 --> 00:15:11.173 These kinds of things. 00:15:11.197 --> 00:15:13.588 People are bringing their true selves, basically. 00:15:13.612 --> 00:15:15.002 They're bringing themselves. 00:15:15.026 --> 00:15:17.125 They bring their ideas, but as themselves, 00:15:17.149 --> 00:15:19.361 with no, you know, residue over them. 00:15:19.385 --> 00:15:24.292 So this is what's driving the effect, or mediating the effect. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:24.316 --> 00:15:27.660 So when I tell people about this, 00:15:27.684 --> 00:15:31.039 that our bodies change our minds and our minds can change our behavior, 00:15:31.063 --> 00:15:33.815 and our behavior can change our outcomes, they say to me, 00:15:33.839 --> 00:15:35.382 "It feels fake." Right? 00:15:35.406 --> 00:15:37.284 So I said, fake it till you make it. 00:15:37.308 --> 00:15:39.161 It's not me. 00:15:39.185 --> 00:15:42.336 I don't want to get there and then still feel like a fraud. 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.170 I don't want to feel like an impostor. 00:15:44.194 --> 00:15:48.267 I don't want to get there only to feel like I'm not supposed to be here. 00:15:48.291 --> 00:15:50.454 And that really resonated with me, 00:15:50.478 --> 00:15:53.700 because I want to tell you a little story about being an impostor 00:15:53.724 --> 00:15:55.922 and feeling like I'm not supposed to be here. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:55.946 --> 00:15:58.863 When I was 19, I was in a really bad car accident. 00:15:58.887 --> 00:16:02.268 I was thrown out of a car, rolled several times. 00:16:02.292 --> 00:16:04.150 I was thrown from the car. 00:16:04.174 --> 00:16:07.138 And I woke up in a head injury rehab ward, 00:16:07.162 --> 00:16:09.371 and I had been withdrawn from college, 00:16:09.395 --> 00:16:15.083 and I learned that my IQ had dropped by two standard deviations, 00:16:15.107 --> 00:16:17.671 which was very traumatic. 00:16:17.695 --> 00:16:20.542 I knew my IQ because I had identified with being smart, 00:16:20.566 --> 00:16:22.554 and I had been called gifted as a child. 00:16:22.578 --> 00:16:25.754 So I'm taken out of college, I keep trying to go back. 00:16:25.778 --> 00:16:27.978 They say, "You're not going to finish college. 00:16:28.002 --> 00:16:30.555 Just, you know, there are other things for you to do, 00:16:30.579 --> 00:16:32.579 but that's not going to work out for you." NOTE Paragraph 00:16:32.603 --> 00:16:36.137 So I really struggled with this, and I have to say, 00:16:36.161 --> 00:16:38.911 having your identity taken from you, your core identity, 00:16:38.935 --> 00:16:40.770 and for me it was being smart, 00:16:40.794 --> 00:16:42.433 having that taken from you, 00:16:42.457 --> 00:16:45.556 there's nothing that leaves you feeling more powerless than that. 00:16:45.580 --> 00:16:47.359 So I felt entirely powerless. 00:16:47.383 --> 00:16:49.245 I worked and worked, and I got lucky, 00:16:49.269 --> 00:16:51.115 and worked, and got lucky, and worked. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:51.139 --> 00:16:53.367 Eventually I graduated from college. 00:16:53.391 --> 00:16:55.391 It took me four years longer than my peers, 00:16:55.415 --> 00:16:59.732 and I convinced someone, my angel advisor, Susan Fiske, 00:16:59.756 --> 00:17:02.676 to take me on, and so I ended up at Princeton, 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:05.527 and I was like, I am not supposed to be here. 00:17:05.551 --> 00:17:06.821 I am an impostor. 00:17:06.845 --> 00:17:08.750 And the night before my first-year talk, 00:17:08.774 --> 00:17:12.273 and the first-year talk at Princeton is a 20-minute talk to 20 people. 00:17:12.297 --> 00:17:13.475 That's it. 00:17:13.499 --> 00:17:15.962 I was so afraid of being found out the next day 00:17:15.986 --> 00:17:18.775 that I called her and said, "I'm quitting." 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:20.631 She was like, "You are not quitting, 00:17:20.655 --> 00:17:23.189 because I took a gamble on you, and you're staying. 00:17:23.213 --> 00:17:25.980 You're going to stay, and this is what you're going to do. 00:17:26.004 --> 00:17:27.337 You are going to fake it. 00:17:27.361 --> 00:17:30.517 You're going to do every talk that you ever get asked to do. 00:17:30.541 --> 00:17:32.780 You're just going to do it and do it and do it, 00:17:32.804 --> 00:17:35.225 even if you're terrified and just paralyzed 00:17:35.249 --> 00:17:37.598 and having an out-of-body experience, 00:17:37.622 --> 00:17:40.968 until you have this moment where you say, 'Oh my gosh, I'm doing it. 00:17:40.992 --> 00:17:43.934 Like, I have become this. I am actually doing this.'" 00:17:43.958 --> 00:17:45.053 So that's what I did. 00:17:45.077 --> 00:17:46.461 Five years in grad school, 00:17:46.485 --> 00:17:48.585 a few years, you know, I'm at Northwestern, 00:17:48.609 --> 00:17:50.672 I moved to Harvard, I'm at Harvard, 00:17:50.696 --> 00:17:54.672 I'm not really thinking about it anymore, but for a long time I had been thinking, 00:17:54.696 --> 00:17:56.478 "Not supposed to be here." NOTE Paragraph 00:17:56.502 --> 00:17:59.195 So at the end of my first year at Harvard, 00:17:59.219 --> 00:18:03.520 a student who had not talked in class the entire semester, 00:18:03.544 --> 00:18:07.211 who I had said, "Look, you've gotta participate or else you're going to fail," 00:18:07.235 --> 00:18:09.759 came into my office. I really didn't know her at all. 00:18:09.783 --> 00:18:13.211 She came in totally defeated, and she said, 00:18:13.235 --> 00:18:16.361 "I'm not supposed to be here." 00:18:20.111 --> 00:18:22.068 And that was the moment for me. 00:18:22.092 --> 00:18:23.684 Because two things happened. 00:18:23.708 --> 00:18:24.978 One was that I realized, 00:18:25.002 --> 00:18:28.112 oh my gosh, I don't feel like that anymore. 00:18:28.136 --> 00:18:31.136 I don't feel that anymore, but she does, and I get that feeling. 00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:33.431 And the second was, she is supposed to be here! 00:18:33.455 --> 00:18:35.408 Like, she can fake it, she can become it. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:35.432 --> 00:18:38.975 So I was like, "Yes, you are! You are supposed to be here! 00:18:38.999 --> 00:18:40.761 And tomorrow you're going to fake it, 00:18:40.785 --> 00:18:43.474 you're going to make yourself powerful, and, you know -- NOTE Paragraph 00:18:43.498 --> 00:18:48.891 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:18:48.915 --> 00:18:52.969 And you're going to go into the classroom, 00:18:52.993 --> 00:18:55.393 and you are going to give the best comment ever." 00:18:55.417 --> 00:18:58.398 You know? And she gave the best comment ever, 00:18:58.422 --> 00:19:00.361 and people turned around and were like, 00:19:00.385 --> 00:19:03.305 oh my God, I didn't even notice her sitting there. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:19:03.329 --> 00:19:05.122 She comes back to me months later, 00:19:05.146 --> 00:19:08.186 and I realized that she had not just faked it till she made it, 00:19:08.210 --> 00:19:10.584 she had actually faked it till she became it. 00:19:10.608 --> 00:19:12.407 So she had changed. 00:19:12.431 --> 00:19:16.491 And so I want to say to you, don't fake it till you make it. 00:19:16.515 --> 00:19:19.288 Fake it till you become it. 00:19:19.312 --> 00:19:22.929 Do it enough until you actually become it and internalize. NOTE Paragraph 00:19:22.953 --> 00:19:25.584 The last thing I'm going to leave you with is this. 00:19:25.608 --> 00:19:30.056 Tiny tweaks can lead to big changes. 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:32.553 So, this is two minutes. 00:19:32.577 --> 00:19:34.387 Two minutes, two minutes, two minutes. 00:19:34.411 --> 00:19:37.535 Before you go into the next stressful evaluative situation, 00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:40.241 for two minutes, try doing this, in the elevator, 00:19:40.265 --> 00:19:43.480 in a bathroom stall, at your desk behind closed doors. 00:19:43.504 --> 00:19:44.907 That's what you want to do. 00:19:44.931 --> 00:19:47.742 Configure your brain to cope the best in that situation. 00:19:47.766 --> 00:19:50.707 Get your testosterone up. Get your cortisol down. 00:19:50.731 --> 00:19:54.673 Don't leave that situation feeling like, oh, I didn't show them who I am. 00:19:54.697 --> 00:19:56.397 Leave that situation feeling like, 00:19:56.421 --> 00:19:59.393 I really feel like I got to say who I am and show who I am. NOTE Paragraph 00:19:59.417 --> 00:20:05.184 So I want to ask you first, you know, both to try power posing, 00:20:05.208 --> 00:20:10.298 and also I want to ask you to share the science, because this is simple. 00:20:10.322 --> 00:20:12.475 I don't have ego involved in this. (Laughter) 00:20:12.499 --> 00:20:14.262 Give it away. Share it with people, 00:20:14.286 --> 00:20:16.706 because the people who can use it the most 00:20:16.730 --> 00:20:20.081 are the ones with no resources and no technology 00:20:20.105 --> 00:20:22.279 and no status and no power. 00:20:22.303 --> 00:20:24.851 Give it to them because they can do it in private. 00:20:24.875 --> 00:20:27.319 They need their bodies, privacy and two minutes, 00:20:27.343 --> 00:20:30.469 and it can significantly change the outcomes of their life. NOTE Paragraph 00:20:30.493 --> 00:20:31.624 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:20:31.648 --> 00:20:34.679 (Applause)