Does the ‘power pose’ really work?

Sajid Javid, on taking up his post as Home Secretary, was photographed in a “power pose” – facing the camera directly while standing with legs unusually far apart, a standing-like-a-starfish stance previously adopted by Theresa May, David Cameron and George Osborne.

However, what is known is that this practice, first described by Harvard academics Dana Carney and Amy Cuddy in 2010 as a way to increase confidence, power and influence, fails to deliver.

Attempting to replicate their findings, Joseph Cesario and colleagues at Michigan State University concluded from 11 studies that, although individuals reported feeling more powerful after taking the power stance, this position didn’t actually result in having more power. For that to happen, more effective and influential ways of thinking and behaving need to be learned. None the less, the way we appear does make a difference to the assessments others make about us, particularly on first meeting.

Facial characteristics are the most revealing. Studies show that observers can reliably predict salient personality characteristics such as extroversion, openness to experience and emotional stability in a stranger simply by looking at a photo of their face. Posture, too, can be telling. Laura Naumann and colleagues at the University of California Berkeley photographed 113 students twice each, once in “neutral”, expressionless standing pose, and then in a “spontaneous” pose when no instructions were given.

Naumann then showed the photos to students who didn’t know the models, and asked them to predict their personality with regard to 10 traits. When they viewed photos of the neutral pose, observers were fairly accurate for only three traits – extroversion, openness to experience and emotional stability. However, when assessing the spontaneous pose, they were statistically accurate for seven of the 10 traits, and nearly so with two more.

Clearly, a stranger’s stance can help when assessing their character. Beware, however, of assuming much about them based on the way they walk.

John Thoresen and colleagues at Durham University filmed 26 volunteers walking 26ft and created 2D point-light images for each. They then asked 124 participants to rate these stark images with regard to six personality traits – adventurousness, extroversion, emotional stability, approachability, trustworthiness and warmth. Although the ratings were strikingly consistent across observers they didn’t align with the models’ self-assessments.

It seems we share beliefs about what gait tells us about personality, but in general those beliefs are wrong.

The conclusion? It’s fairly safe to rely on facial characteristics in predicting a stranger’s personality, and on posture. Just try not to judge them while they’re walking up to meet you.