Power Pose Anyone? Don't Bother

So you thought all you had to do to shine at a meeting was strike a pose?  Not exactly, according to newswise.com.

Striking a power pose before an important meeting or interview is not going to boost your confidence or make you feel more powerful, says an Iowa State University researcher.
"The concept of power posing – think of a Wonder Woman stance – gained popularity after a 2010 study reported that people who adopted an expansive physical pose decreased cortisol levels (an indicator of stress), increased testosterone levels and felt more powerful and willing to take risks. However, Marcus Credé, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State, says there is not a single study to support the claims that power posing works," writes the web site.
Researchers were criticized because the results could not be replicated. In 2018, the researchers responded to critics by presenting an updated analysis of their own research and other studies on power posing to support their claims. In a new commentary, published by the open-access journal Meta-Psychology, Credé reviewed every study on power posing as well as the analysis the researchers provided and found a significant flaw, newswise reports.
"Nearly all of the studies he reviewed were poorly designed and failed to compare power poses to normal poses. Instead, they only compared power poses to contractive ones, such as slouching. Credé says not having a neutral pose for comparison can skew the results. That’s because any difference between a power pose and a contractive pose could occur because a contractive pose makes you feel worse, rather than an expansive pose making you feel better, the web site explains.
Pose overdosed?
Though the lack of oversight has caused many to dismiss the idea, a number of people have bought into the concept. A TED Talk on power posing has been viewed more than 70 million times and a book on power posing was a New York Times bestseller, according to newswise.
“There has literally never been a study that compared a power pose to a normal pose and found any positive effect for a power pose,” Credé said. “I find this pretty stunning because of the multimillion-dollar industry that has been built up around power posing. It is not dissimilar to a drug being sold to the public without a single study ever having been able to show that the drug works better than placebo or doing nothing.”
Only four of the nearly 40 studies that exist on power posing were designed in such a way as to shed light on the benefits, Credé said. One of those studies compared the effect of slouched, neutral and power poses on feelings of dominance. According to the findings, feelings of dominance were highest in the neutral position and the power pose was associated with diminished feelings of power.  
“The only conclusion researchers should draw from the existing literature on postural feedback is that contractive poses such as slouching should be avoided, which is hardly novel,” he said on the website. “I recall my elementary school teachers yelling at us about slouching and not what has been sold here.”
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