According to Marcus Credé, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University, adopting a "power pose"—like Wonder Woman's stance—before a key meeting or interview won't boost your confidence or make you feel stronger. The idea surged after a 2010 study claiming expansive poses cut cortisol (stress indicator), raised testosterone, and heightened power and risk-taking feelings. But Credé says no studies truly support these effects.
Replication issues surfaced soon after publication. In 2018, the original team offered reanalyses of their work and others to defend it. Credé's new commentary dissects every power posing study and those analyses, revealing a critical flaw.
Most studies compared power poses only to contractive ones like slouching, ignoring neutral stances. This biases outcomes, Credé explains: differences arise because slouching feels worse, not because power poses improve anything.
The oversight troubles him, given dozens of researchers involved. Even more concerning is its reach—a TED Talk exceeds 70 million views, and a power posing book was a New York Times bestseller.
“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 quite stunning because of the multimillion dollar industry built around power posing. It's not like a drug being sold to the public without a single study ever showing that the drug works better than placebo or does nothing.”
Feelings of strength decreased compared to neutral pose Only four of the nearly 40 studies properly tested benefits, Credé notes. One compared slouching, neutral, and power poses on dominance feelings: neutral was highest, power poses lower.
Three others checked mood effects across poses, reporting differences—but Credé attributes them to slouching's negativity.
“The only conclusion researchers should draw from the existing literature on posture feedback is that contractive postures such as slouching should be avoided, which is hardly new,” he said. “I remember my primary school teachers yelling at us about slouching.”
