Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance.

Abstract

The authors tested whether engaging in expansive (vs. contractive) "power poses" before a stressful job interview--preparatory power posing--would enhance performance during the interview. Participants adopted high-power (i.e., expansive, open) poses or low-power (i.e., contractive, closed) poses, and then prepared and delivered a speech to 2 evaluators as part of a mock job interview. All interview speeches were videotaped and coded for overall performance and hireability and for 2 potential mediators: verbal content (e.g., structure, content) and nonverbal presence (e.g., captivating, enthusiastic). As predicted, those who prepared for the job interview with high- (vs. low-) power poses performed better and were more likely to be chosen for hire; this relation was mediated by nonverbal presence, but not by verbal content. Although previous research has focused on how a nonverbal behavior that is enacted during interactions and observed by perceivers affects how those perceivers evaluate and respond to the actor, this experiment focused on how a nonverbal behavior that is enacted before the interaction and unobserved by perceivers affects the actor's performance, which, in turn, affects how perceivers evaluate and respond to the actor. This experiment reveals a theoretically novel and practically informative result that demonstrates the causal relation between preparatory nonverbal behavior and subsequent performance and outcomes.

Posture and Social Problem Solving, Self-Esteem, and Optimism

“…Their findings suggest that the impact of power posing may be quite limited, or at the least, subject to moderation by very specific conditions such as gender, awareness of the hypothesis of the experiment or the "cover story" variable, timing of the posture, and the experimenters' blindness to the experiment. In their rebuttal, Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2015) discussed evidence of expansive posture and power posing research across 33 studies and suggested Ranehill et al's results are due to methodological differences. However, that summary did not include quantitative analyses across findings.…”

“…It has also been associated with several behavioral indicators such as puzzle solving persistence (Riskind & Gotay, 1982), job interview performance and nonverbal presence (Cuddy, Wilmuth, Yap, & Carney, 2015). Research has yet to examine, however, a specific link between expansive posture and problem-solving through thought confidence.…”

“…However, that summary did not include quantitative analyses across findings. Simmons and Simonsohn (2017) examined the research previously summarized in Carney et al (2015) using p-curve analysis and found no evidence of an effect after accounting for selective reporting. Research on the "power posing effect" and the impact of expansive posture on both attitudes and behavior is clearly mixed.…”

“…Participants who were primed to think of powerful moments in their lives before applying for admission to business schools were judged as more persuasive and chosen for admission for than those who were not primed (Lammers, Dubois, Rucker, & Galinsky, 2013). Indeed, research has found that subjects who engaged in power posing prior to job interviews were more frequently chosen for hire (Carney et al, 2010;Cuddy, Wilmuth, Yap, & Carney, 2015).…”

The Booth: Bringing Out the Super Hero in You

“…It improves our strengths, skills, decision taking and perception [8]. The study in [9] describes how participants who were asked to stay in expansive body postures that express power prior to a job interview, significantly outperformed participants who did not use the power postures before the interview.…”