Power posing: a small study, a TED talk and a failed replication

What happened

Carney, Cuddy and Yap published a study in Psychological Science in 2010 reporting that holding high-power poses changed hormone levels and risk tolerance. Amy Cuddy gave a TEDGlobal talk on power posing in June 2012. Ranehill and colleagues published a replication attempt in 2015. In 2016 Carney posted a statement saying the effects are not believed to be real. Simmons and Simonsohn also analyzed the supporting studies with a p-curve.

The psychological idea

The 2010 study asked whether brief expansive postures change how powerful people feel, their hormone levels and their willingness to take risks. Its abstract reports that high-power posers had higher testosterone, lower cortisol, stronger feelings of power and greater risk tolerance, and that low-power posers showed the opposite pattern. The authors concluded that the effects reach beyond feelings into physiology and later choices.

In practice

The talk gave the 2010 findings a wide popular audience: its page lists over 77 million plays when it was opened in October 2026. The page now notes that some findings in the talk are part of an ongoing debate about reproducibility. No clinical use of power posing is documented in the sources opened for this record.

Why it mattered

The TED page now carries a note that some findings in the talk are part of a debate among social scientists about reproducibility. The first author of the 2010 study later listed choices in it that are now regarded as problems, and said power poses are no longer taught in Carney's classes. The hormone and risk findings are therefore contested.

Evidence behind the claims

• The 2010 abstract reports that high-power poses produced higher testosterone, lower cortisol, greater feelings of power and greater risk tolerance than low-power poses, with the opposite pattern for low-power poses.

  Experimental findingSource: [1]Where: Abstract, Psychological Science 21(10), 1363-1368Checked at abstract level

• Ranehill and colleagues (2015, Psychological Science 26(5), 653-656) titled their replication as finding no effect on hormones and risk tolerance in a large sample of men and women; Data Colada reports that it did affect self-reported power but not risk-taking or hormone levels, and says the original authors treat felt power as a manipulation check, not an outcome.

  Experimental findingSources: [2] [4]Where: Record title; Data Colada section on the replication and felt powerChecked at abstract level

• Carney's 2016 statement says Carney does not believe power pose effects are real, is conducting no research on them, discourages others from studying them and no longer teaches them or talks about them in the media.

  DocumentedSource: [3]Where: Opening paragraphs and the list headed 'Where do I Stand'

• Carney's statement says the sample was tiny with 5 exclusions and a final N of 42, subjects were run in chunks while the effect was checked, the smaller of two p-values (.052 and .05) was reported, many self-report power questions were asked and those chosen were the ones that worked, and the experimenters knew the hypothesis.

  DocumentedSource: [3]Where: Facts 3 and 5 to 10 and Confounds 1

• Simmons and Simonsohn describe the p-curve of the studies as flattish and not right-skewed; in a check using only manipulation-check results, Z = .84 and p = .199 for evidential value, and the curve of 7 manipulation-check results was directionally right-skewed (p = .075), which they read as consistent with the replication's effect on self-reported power.

  Experimental findingSource: [4]Where: P-curve analysis, footnote 5 and Conclusions of the blog postChecked at page level

• The TED page lists Amy Cuddy's TEDGlobal 2012 talk Your body language may shape who you are, dated June 2012, with 77,760,311 plays, and notes an ongoing debate among social scientists about reproducibility.

  Company self-reportSource: [5]Where: Talk pageChecked at page level

• Cuddy, Schultz and Fosse (2018, Psychological Science 29, 656-666) replied to Simmons and Simonsohn with a paper titled as showing clear evidential value for power-posing effects.

  ContestedSource: [6]Where: Crossref record titleChecked at abstract level

People involved

• Dana Carney. First author of the 2010 study and author of the 2016 statement
• Amy Cuddy. Co-author of the 2010 study and speaker in the 2012 TED talk
• Eva Ranehill. First author of the 2015 replication
• Joseph Simmons. Co-author of the p-curve analysis
• Uri Simonsohn. Co-author of the p-curve analysis

In the Psy101 course

• OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 2.3: Analyzing FindingsChapter 2, Psychological Research. Method. The section discusses this topic.Discusses replication, the replication crisis, statistical significance and sample size; it does not mention power posing.

This is course relevance only. It is not evidence for the historical or corporate claims on this page.See the full course map.

Sources and inspection

6 of 6 sources were opened and read at the level shown. A source marked as not verified supports no claim on this page by itself.

1. [1]
   Power posing: brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk toleranceCarney, D; Cuddy, A; Yap, A. Psychological Science, 21(10), 1363-1368 (record via Europe PMC), 2010. Journal article. Primary source.Abstract or publisher record onlyRead a Europe PMC record summarising the abstract (premise, testosterone and cortisol, feelings of power, risk tolerance, conclusion). The full paper was not opened (subscription).
2. [2]
   Assessing the robustness of power posing: no effect on hormones and risk tolerance in a large sample of men and womenRanehill, E; Dreber, A; Johannesson, M; Leiberg, S; Sul, S; Weber, R. Psychological Science, 26(5), 653-656 (record via Europe PMC), 2015. Journal article. Critique or replication.Abstract or publisher record onlyRead bibliographic metadata only (title, authors, journal, pages). The record had no abstract, so the replication's sample size and statistics were not seen.
3. [3]
   My position on Power PosesCarney, D. Author's statement (PDF on the Haas School of Business faculty site), 2016. Report. Critique or replication.Relevant text checkedRead both pages of the PDF statement in full (file dated 2 October 2016).
4. [4]
   [37] Power Posing: Reassessing the evidence behind the most popular TED talkSimmons, J; Simonsohn, U. Data Colada (blog), 2016. News report. Critique or replication.Reference article readRead the authors' blog post as returned by the fetch tool (p-curve section, footnote 5, replication and felt power, conclusions). The peer-reviewed paper was not opened.
5. [5]
   Your body language may shape who you areCuddy, A. TED (TEDGlobal 2012), 2012. Company document. Company document.Company document readRead the TED talk page: title, event, date, play count and the note on the debate.
6. [6]
   P-Curving a More Comprehensive Body of Research on Postural Feedback Reveals Clear Evidential Value for Power-Posing Effects: Reply to Simmons and Simonsohn (2017)Cuddy, A; Schultz, S; Fosse, N. Psychological Science, 29, 656-666 (record via Crossref), 2018. Journal article. Critique or replication.Abstract or publisher record onlyRead Crossref bibliographic metadata only (title, authors, journal, volume, pages); no abstract. The reply's content was not seen.

Access note: The 2010 paper and the 2015 replication were read only as records (a summary of the abstract and a title); the 2017 p-curve paper was not opened and is described through the authors' blog post.

Independent source review: Claude review agent, independent of the research agent, 2026-10-21. Verdict: pass-with-edits.

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