| [0.000 --> 23.840] So I want to start by offering you a free no tech life hack and all it requires of you | |
| [23.840 --> 30.960] is this that you change your posture for two minutes. But before I give it away, I want to ask you to | |
| [30.960 --> 36.000] right now do a little audit of your body and what you're doing with your body. So how many of you | |
| [36.000 --> 41.120] are sort of making yourself smaller, maybe you're hunching, crossing your legs, maybe wrapping your | |
| [41.120 --> 52.000] ankles, sometimes we hold onto our arms like this, sometimes we spread out. I see you. So I want you | |
| [52.000 --> 56.160] to pay attention to what you're doing right now. We're going to come back to that in a few minutes | |
| [56.160 --> 61.040] and I'm hoping that if you sort of learn to tweak this a little bit, it could significantly change | |
| [61.040 --> 68.640] the way your life unfolds. So we're really fascinated with body language and we're particularly | |
| [68.640 --> 73.920] interested in other people's body language. You know, we're interested in like, you know, | |
| [73.920 --> 85.280] a an awkward interaction or a smile or a contemptuous glance or maybe a very awkward wink or maybe even | |
| [85.280 --> 91.280] something like a handshake. Here they are arriving at number 10 and look at this lucky policeman gets | |
| [91.280 --> 96.800] the shake hands with the president of the United States. Oh, here comes the prime minister of it. No. | |
| [96.800 --> 109.440] So a handshake or the lack of a handshake can have us talking for weeks and weeks and weeks, | |
| [109.440 --> 116.080] even the BBC and the New York Times. So obviously when we think about nonverbal behavior or body language, | |
| [116.080 --> 121.120] but we call it nonverbals as social scientists, it's language. So we think about communication. | |
| [121.120 --> 125.520] When we think about communication, we think about interactions. So what is your body language | |
| [125.520 --> 132.240] communicating to me? What's mine communicating to you? And there's a lot of reason to believe that this | |
| [132.240 --> 137.840] is a valid way to look at this. So social scientists have spent a lot of time looking at the effects of | |
| [137.840 --> 143.200] of our body language or other people's body language on judgments and we make sweeping judgments and | |
| [143.200 --> 149.280] inferences from body language and those judgments can predict really meaningful life outcomes like | |
| [149.280 --> 153.600] who we hire or promote, who we ask out on the date. For example, | |
| [155.200 --> 161.200] Nallini Ambody, a researcher at Tufts University shows that when people watch 30-second | |
| [161.200 --> 166.800] soundless clips of real physician patient interactions, their judgments of the physician's | |
| [166.800 --> 172.160] niceness predict whether or not that physician will be sued. So it doesn't have to do so much with | |
| [172.160 --> 176.160] whether or not that physician was incompetent, but do we like that person and how they interacted? | |
| [177.120 --> 184.160] Even more dramatic, Alex Todorovic Princeton has shown us that judgments of political candidates faces | |
| [184.160 --> 194.400] in just one second predicts 70% of US Senate and gubernatorial race outcomes. And even, let's go digital, | |
| [194.400 --> 201.040] in modacons used well in online negotiations can lead you to claim more value from that negotiation | |
| [201.200 --> 207.520] if you use them poorly, bad idea. Right? So when we think of non-verbals, we think of how we judge | |
| [207.520 --> 212.560] others, how they judge us and what the outcomes are. We tend to forget though the other audience | |
| [212.560 --> 218.880] that's influenced by our non-verbals and that's ourselves. We are also influenced by our non-verbals, | |
| [218.880 --> 225.040] our thoughts and our feelings and our physiology. So what non-verbals am I talking about? I'm a social | |
| [225.040 --> 231.440] psychologist, I study prejudice and I teach it a competitive business school. So it was | |
| [231.440 --> 237.200] inevitable that I would become interested in power dynamics. I became especially interested in | |
| [237.200 --> 242.960] non-verbal expressions of power and dominance. And what are non-verbal expressions of power and | |
| [242.960 --> 248.720] dominance? Well, this is what they are. So in the animal kingdom, they are about expanding. So you | |
| [248.720 --> 255.440] make yourself big, you stretch out, you take up space, you're basically opening up, it's about opening | |
| [255.440 --> 262.480] up. And this is true across the animal kingdom. It's not just limited to primates and humans do the | |
| [262.480 --> 268.960] same thing. So they do this both when they have power sort of chronically and also when they're | |
| [268.960 --> 274.160] feeling powerful in the moment. And this one is especially interesting because it really shows us | |
| [274.160 --> 280.480] how universal and old these expressions of power are. This expression, which is known as pride, | |
| [281.120 --> 286.640] Jessica Tracy has studied, she shows that people who are born with sight and people who are | |
| [286.640 --> 292.080] can generally blind do this when they win at a physical competition. So when they cross the | |
| [292.080 --> 296.880] finish line and they won, it doesn't matter if they've never seen anyone do it, they do this. So the | |
| [296.880 --> 302.000] arms up in the V, the chin is slightly lifted. What are we doing when we feel powerless? We do | |
| [302.000 --> 307.920] exactly the opposite. We close up, we wrap ourselves up, we make ourselves small, we don't want to | |
| [307.920 --> 313.760] bump into the person next to us. So again, both animals and humans do the same thing. And this is | |
| [313.760 --> 319.760] what happens when you put together high and low power. So what we tend to do when it comes to power | |
| [319.760 --> 324.960] is that we compliment the others non-verbals. So if someone's being really powerful with us, we | |
| [324.960 --> 331.040] tend to make ourselves smaller. We don't mirror them, we do the opposite of them. So I'm watching this | |
| [331.040 --> 340.400] behavior in the classroom. And what do I notice? I notice that MBA students really exhibit the | |
| [340.400 --> 345.280] full range of power non-verbals. So you have people who are like caricatures of alphas, like really | |
| [345.280 --> 349.840] coming to the room, they get right into the middle of the room before class even starts, like they | |
| [349.840 --> 354.560] really want to occupy space. When they sit down, they're sort of spread out, they raise their hands | |
| [354.560 --> 360.080] like this. You have other people who are virtually collapsing when they come in, as soon as they come | |
| [360.080 --> 364.160] and you see it. You see it on their faces and their bodies. And they sit in their chair and they | |
| [364.160 --> 369.760] make themselves tiny. And they go like this when they raise their hand. I notice a couple things about | |
| [369.760 --> 376.960] this. One, you're not going to be surprised. It seems to be related to gender. So women are much more | |
| [376.960 --> 382.800] likely to do this kind of thing than men. Women feel chronically less powerful than men. So this is | |
| [382.800 --> 389.040] not surprising. But the other thing I notice is that it also seemed to be related to the extent to which | |
| [389.040 --> 394.240] the students were participating and how well they were participating. And this is really important | |
| [394.240 --> 400.400] in the MBA classroom because participation counts for half the grade. So, business schools have | |
| [400.400 --> 405.120] been struggling with its gender grade gap. You get these equally qualified women and men coming in | |
| [406.160 --> 411.040] and then you get these differences in grades and it seems to be partly attributable to participation. | |
| [411.040 --> 416.400] So I started to wonder, you know, okay, so you have these people coming in like this and they're | |
| [416.400 --> 421.360] participating. Is it possible that we could get people to fake it and would it lead them to | |
| [421.360 --> 428.080] participate more? So my main collaborator, Dana Karney, who's at Berkeley and I really wanted to | |
| [428.080 --> 433.760] know can you fake it so you make it? Like can you do this just for a little while and actually | |
| [433.760 --> 439.520] experience a behavioral outcome that makes you seem more powerful? So we know that our non-verbals | |
| [439.520 --> 443.520] govern how other people think and feel about us. There's a lot of evidence. But our question really | |
| [443.520 --> 450.640] was do our non-verbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves? There's some evidence that | |
| [450.640 --> 458.080] they do. So for example, when we smile when we feel happy but also when we're forced to smile by | |
| [458.080 --> 465.040] holding a pen in our teeth like this, it makes us feel happy. So it goes both ways. When it comes to | |
| [465.040 --> 472.800] power, it also goes both ways. So when you feel powerful, you're more likely to do this, but it's | |
| [472.800 --> 481.760] also possible that when you pretend to be powerful, you are more likely to actually feel powerful. | |
| [482.720 --> 488.240] So the second question really was, you know, so we know that our minds change our bodies, | |
| [488.240 --> 494.480] but is it also true that our bodies change our minds? And when I say minds in the case of the | |
| [494.480 --> 499.600] powerful, what am I talking about? So I'm talking about thoughts and feelings and the sort of | |
| [499.600 --> 504.080] physiological things that make up our thoughts and feelings. And in my case, that's hormones. | |
| [504.080 --> 509.120] I look at hormones. So what do the minds of the powerful versus the powerless look like? | |
| [510.080 --> 516.000] So powerful people tend to be not surprisingly more assertive and more confident, | |
| [516.640 --> 520.720] more optimistic. They actually feel that they're going to win even at games of chance. | |
| [522.240 --> 527.200] They also tend to be able to think more abstractly. So there are a lot of differences. They take | |
| [527.200 --> 532.480] more risks. There are a lot of differences between powerful and powerless people. Physiologically, | |
| [532.480 --> 538.080] there are also our differences. On two key hormones, testosterone, which is the dominant swarm | |
| [538.080 --> 548.080] mong, and cortisol, which is the stress hormone. So what we find is that high power alpha-mails and | |
| [548.080 --> 555.120] primate hierarchies have high testosterone and low cortisol. And powerful and effective leaders | |
| [555.120 --> 560.640] also have high testosterone and low cortisol. So what does that mean? When do you think about power, | |
| [560.640 --> 565.200] 10 people tended to think only about testosterone because that was about dominance. But really, | |
| [565.200 --> 571.280] power is also about how you react to stress. So do you want the high power leader that's dominant, | |
| [571.280 --> 576.720] high on testosterone, but really stress reactive? Probably not, right? You want the person who's | |
| [576.720 --> 582.320] powerful and assertive and dominant, but not very stress reactive, the person who's laid back. So | |
| [583.280 --> 592.000] we know that in primate hierarchies, if an alpha needs to take over, if an individual needs to take | |
| [592.000 --> 597.520] over an alpha role, sort of suddenly, within a few days, that individual's testosterone has gone | |
| [597.520 --> 603.840] up significantly and cortisol has dropped significantly. So we have this evidence, both that the body | |
| [603.840 --> 610.720] can shape the mind at least at the facial level, and also that role changes can shape the mind. | |
| [610.800 --> 616.240] So what happens? Okay, you take a role change. What happens if you do that at a really minimal level? | |
| [616.240 --> 621.120] Like this tiny manipulation, this tiny intervention, for two minutes you say, I want you to stand | |
| [621.120 --> 627.920] like this and it's going to make you feel more powerful. So this is what we did. We decided to | |
| [627.920 --> 634.480] bring people into the lab and run a little experiment. And these people adopted for two minutes, | |
| [635.040 --> 640.400] either high power poses or low power poses. And I'm just going to show you five of the poses, | |
| [640.400 --> 649.920] although they took on only two. So here's one, a couple more. This one has been dubbed the Wonder Woman | |
| [649.920 --> 656.480] by the media. Here are a couple more. So you can be standing or you can be sitting. And here are | |
| [656.480 --> 663.680] the low power poses. So you're folding up, you're making yourself small. This one is very low power. | |
| [663.680 --> 669.520] When you're touching your neck, you're really kind of protecting yourself. So this is what happens. | |
| [669.520 --> 675.120] They come in, they spit into a vial. For two minutes say, you need to do this or this. They don't | |
| [675.120 --> 679.040] look at pictures of the poses. We don't want to prime them with a concept of power. We want them to | |
| [679.040 --> 684.640] be feeling power. So two minutes they do this, we then ask them how powerful do you feel on a | |
| [684.640 --> 691.040] series of items. And then we give them an opportunity to gamble. And then we take another saliva sample. | |
| [691.040 --> 695.600] That's it. That's the whole experiment. So this is what we find. Risk tolerance, which is the | |
| [695.600 --> 702.960] gambling. What we find is that when you're in the high power pose condition, 86% of you will gamble. | |
| [702.960 --> 707.520] When you're in the low power pose condition, only 60%. And that's a pretty whopping significant | |
| [707.520 --> 714.160] difference. Here's what we find on testosterone. From their baseline, when they come in, high power | |
| [714.160 --> 721.840] people experience about a 20% increase. And low power people experience about a 10% decrease. So | |
| [721.840 --> 727.440] again, two minutes and you get these changes. Here's what you get on cortisol. High power people | |
| [727.440 --> 734.560] experience about a 25% decrease. And the low power people experience about a 15% increase. | |
| [734.560 --> 740.160] So two minutes lead to these hormonal changes that configure your brain to basically be either | |
| [740.720 --> 747.520] assertive, confident, and comfortable or really stress reactive. And you know, feeling sort of | |
| [747.520 --> 754.480] shut down. And we've all had that feeling, right? So it seems that our nonverbales do govern | |
| [754.480 --> 758.320] how we think and feel about ourselves. So it's not just others, but it's also ourselves. | |
| [759.120 --> 764.880] Also our bodies change our minds. But the next question of course is, can power posing for a few | |
| [764.880 --> 769.840] minutes really change your life in meaningful ways? So this isn't a lab. It's this little task. | |
| [769.840 --> 773.680] You know, it's just a couple of minutes. You know, where can you actually apply this, which we | |
| [773.680 --> 780.160] cared about of course. And so we think it's really what matters. I mean, where you want to use | |
| [780.160 --> 785.680] this is evaluative situations like social threat situations. Where are you being evaluated, | |
| [785.680 --> 790.800] either by your friends like for teenagers at the lunchroom table. It could be, you know, for some | |
| [790.800 --> 797.280] people speaking at a school board meeting, it might be giving a pitch or giving a talk like this | |
| [797.280 --> 802.960] or doing a job interview. We decided that the one that most people could relate to because most | |
| [802.960 --> 809.280] people had been through was the job interview. So we published these findings and the media are all | |
| [809.280 --> 813.360] over it and they say, okay, so this is what you do when you go in for the job interview, right? | |
| [814.800 --> 819.040] You know, so we were of course horrified and it said, oh my god, no, no, no, that's not what we meant | |
| [819.040 --> 824.560] at all for numerous reasons. No, no, no, don't do that. Again, this is not about you talking to other | |
| [824.560 --> 829.440] people. It's you talking to yourself. What do you do before you go into a job interview? You do this, | |
| [829.440 --> 833.280] right? You're sitting down, you're looking at your iPhone or your Android and not trying to leave | |
| [833.280 --> 838.160] anyone out. You are, you know, you're looking at your notes, you're hunting up, making yourself small | |
| [838.160 --> 843.200] and really what you should be doing maybe is this like in the bathroom, right? Do that, fine two | |
| [843.200 --> 848.480] minutes. So that's what we want to test, okay? So we bring people into a lab and they do a cup, | |
| [848.480 --> 853.760] they do either higher low power poses again. They go through a very stressful job interview. It's | |
| [853.760 --> 861.360] five minutes long. They are being recorded, they're being judged also and the judges are trained | |
| [861.360 --> 866.640] to give no nonverbal feedback. So they look like this, like imagine this is the person interviewing | |
| [866.640 --> 874.160] you. So for five minutes, nothing. And this is worse than being heckled. People hate this. It's | |
| [874.160 --> 879.600] what, Mary Ann LeFrance calls standing in social quicksand. So this really spikes your cortisol. | |
| [879.600 --> 883.120] So this is the job interview we put them through because we really wanted to see what happened. | |
| [884.080 --> 888.960] We then have these coders look at these tapes for them. They're blind to the hypothesis, | |
| [888.960 --> 895.360] they're blind to the conditions. They have no idea who's been posing in what pose and they end up | |
| [896.160 --> 900.880] looking at these sets of tapes and they say, oh, we want to hire these people, all the high power | |
| [900.880 --> 906.320] of posters. We don't want to hire these people. We also evaluate these people much more positively | |
| [906.320 --> 912.800] overall. But what's driving it? It's not about the content of the speech. It's about the presence | |
| [912.800 --> 916.560] that they're bringing to the speech. We also, because we rate them on all these variables related | |
| [916.560 --> 920.800] to sort of confidence, like how well structured it is the speech, how good is it? What are their | |
| [920.800 --> 926.480] qualifications? No effect on those things. This is what's affected. These kinds of things. | |
| [926.480 --> 930.880] People are bringing their true selves, basically. They're bringing themselves. They bring their ideas, | |
| [930.880 --> 938.240] but as themselves with no residue over them. So this is what's driving the effect or mediating the | |
| [938.240 --> 945.440] effect. So when I tell people about this that our bodies change our minds and our minds can change | |
| [945.440 --> 950.560] our behavior and our behavior can change our outcomes, they say to me, I don't, it feels fake, | |
| [950.560 --> 956.720] right? So I said fake it till you make it. It's not me. I don't want to get there and then | |
| [956.720 --> 960.880] still feel like a fraud. I don't want to feel like an imposter. I don't want to get there only to | |
| [960.880 --> 967.040] feel like I'm not supposed to be here. And that really resonated with me because I want to tell you | |
| [967.040 --> 972.320] a little story about being an imposter and feeling like I'm not supposed to be here. When I was 19, | |
| [973.040 --> 978.400] I was in a really bad car accident. I was thrown out of a car, rolled several times. I was thrown | |
| [978.400 --> 984.320] from the car and I woke up in a head injury rehab ward and I had been withdrawn from college. | |
| [985.680 --> 993.360] And I learned that my IQ had dropped by two standard deviations, which was very traumatic. | |
| [993.360 --> 998.240] I knew my IQ because I had identified with being smart and I had been called gifted as a child. | |
| [998.240 --> 1002.800] So I'm taken out of college. I keep trying to go back. They say you're not going to finish college. | |
| [1002.800 --> 1007.280] Like just, you know, there are other things for you to do, but that's not going to work out for you. | |
| [1008.000 --> 1013.840] So I really struggled with this and I have to say, having your identity taken from you, your core | |
| [1013.840 --> 1018.720] identity and for me it was being smart. Having that taken from you, there's nothing that leaves you | |
| [1018.720 --> 1023.680] feeling more powerless than that. So I felt entirely powerless. I worked and worked and worked and I | |
| [1023.680 --> 1029.120] got lucky and worked and got lucky and worked. Eventually I graduated from college. It took me four | |
| [1029.120 --> 1036.560] years longer than my peers and I convinced someone, my angel advisor, Susan Fisk, to take me on. | |
| [1036.560 --> 1041.760] And so I ended up at Princeton and I was like, I am not supposed to be here. I am an imposter. | |
| [1042.240 --> 1046.080] And the night before my first year of talking, the first year of talking at Princeton is a 20-minute | |
| [1046.080 --> 1052.640] talk to 20 people. That's it. I was so afraid of being found out the next day that I called her and | |
| [1052.640 --> 1058.640] said, I'm quitting. She was like, you are not quitting because I took a gamble on you and you're staying. | |
| [1058.640 --> 1062.880] You're going to stay and this is what you're going to do. You're going to fake it. You're going to | |
| [1062.880 --> 1067.200] take, you're going to do every talk that you ever get asked to do. You're just going to do it and do | |
| [1067.200 --> 1072.800] it and do it even if you're terrified and just paralyzed and having an out of body experience. | |
| [1072.800 --> 1078.080] And until you have this moment where you say, oh my gosh, I'm doing it. I have become this. | |
| [1078.080 --> 1082.880] I am actually doing this. So that's what I did. Five years in grad school. A few years, I'm at | |
| [1082.880 --> 1088.240] Northwestern. I moved to Harvard. I'm at Harvard. I'm not really thinking about it anymore. But for a | |
| [1088.240 --> 1092.640] long time, I had been thinking not supposed to be here. Not supposed to be here. So the end of my | |
| [1092.640 --> 1099.680] first year at Harvard, a student who had not talked in class the entire semester who I'd said, | |
| [1099.680 --> 1103.600] look, you've got to participate or else you're going to fail. Came into my office. I really didn't | |
| [1103.600 --> 1110.960] know where it all. And she said, she came in totally defeated and she said, I'm not supposed to be here. | |
| [1116.080 --> 1121.040] And that was the moment for me because two things happened. One was that I realized, oh my gosh, | |
| [1121.040 --> 1126.080] I don't feel like that anymore. I don't feel that anymore. But she does. And I get that feeling. | |
| [1126.080 --> 1131.360] And the second one, she is supposed to be here. Like she can fake it. She can become it. So I was like, | |
| [1131.920 --> 1136.400] yes, you are. You are supposed to be here. And tomorrow you're going to fake it. You're going to make | |
| [1136.400 --> 1149.680] yourself powerful. And you're going to go into the classroom. And you are going to give the best | |
| [1149.680 --> 1155.200] comment ever. And she gave the best comment ever. And people turned around and they were like, oh my | |
| [1155.200 --> 1161.120] god, I didn't even notice her sitting there. She comes back to me months later and I realized that | |
| [1161.120 --> 1166.960] she had not just faked it until she made it. She had actually faked it until she became it. So she had | |
| [1166.960 --> 1173.280] changed. And so I want to say to you, don't fake it until you make it. Fake it until you become it. | |
| [1174.400 --> 1179.040] It's not do it enough until you actually become it and internalize. The last thing I'm going to | |
| [1179.040 --> 1188.640] leave you with is this tiny tweaks can lead to big changes. So this is two minutes, two minutes, | |
| [1188.640 --> 1193.440] two minutes, two minutes. Before you go into the next stressful evaluative situation, for two | |
| [1193.440 --> 1198.720] minutes, try doing this in the elevator in a bathroom stall at your desk behind closed doors. | |
| [1198.720 --> 1203.600] That's what you want to do. Get configure your brain to cope the best in that situation. Get your | |
| [1203.600 --> 1208.800] testosterone up. Get your cortisol down. Don't leave that situation feeling like, oh, I didn't show | |
| [1208.800 --> 1213.680] them who I am. Leave that situation feeling like, oh, I really feel like I got to say who I am and | |
| [1213.680 --> 1222.240] show who I am. So I want to ask you first, you know, both to try power posing. And also, I want to | |
| [1222.240 --> 1228.080] ask you to share this science because this is simple. I don't have ego involved in this. Give it | |
| [1228.080 --> 1232.000] away. Like share it with people because the people who can use it the most are the ones with no | |
| [1232.000 --> 1239.280] resources and no technology and no status and no power. Give it to them because they can do it | |
| [1239.280 --> 1244.640] in private. They need their bodies, privacy and two minutes and it can significantly change the | |
| [1244.640 --> 1255.360] outcomes of their life. Thank you. | |