The Downside To Power Posing Body Language Looking At Power Posing In Action, Study
Christopher Philip
A team of German researchers led by Julia Fischer, University of Munich tested the effects of power body language on the decision making process.
In a series of studies, the researchers directly tested body language such as making a fist or displaying open, expansive postures. The control group was instructed to keep their hands relaxed or pose in a closed, constrictive seating position. After the power embodiment postures were adopted, the subjects worked through a case which required them to come to a decision based on a set of information.
The researchers expected that the high-power decision makers (the ones holding the fist or expansive postures during decision making) would have higher levels of “confirmatory information processing” than the control group and would therefore stand their ground more than those holding constrictive postures.
“Confirmatory information processing” consists of:
a) Selective Exposure: When a person shows preferences for knowledge that is consistent with their own previous attitudes, decisions, and expectations over information that contradicts it.
b) Biased Assimilation: When a person overestimates the quality, relevance and importance of a view-point that is consistent with their own compared to inconsistent information.
Incidentally, both of the above factors tend to be highly correlated, such that if a person tends toward one, he tends toward the other.
So in summary, the researchers expected that those people who used power poses such as making a fist and expansive postures, would be less likely to use information to make decisions if it didn’t coincide with their previous opinions and experiences.
The first study consistent of having subjects either make a fist (power posture) or keep their hand relaxed (neutral condition). They were told to hold the posture for the duration of the exercise. The task presented to the subjects included making a managerial role playing decision. The scenario had subjects decide on the fate of a new manager Mr. Miller. They were given preliminary information about his performance, then asked for an initial decision.
They were then told that (a) more information was available for them to examine, and (b) that they would have the chance to revise their decision if the need arose.
The results showed that participants who were subject to the power embodiment manipulation (clenched fist) exhibited higher levels of confirmatory information
processing than participants in the control condition.
The second study was designed to confirm the findings from the first study with the use of an open expansive sitting posture rather than a fist for the power posture. Those in the lower power control group were instructed to sit in a constrictive posture.
This time subjects worked on an economic task. The subjects were asked to make a decision on whether to open a snack bar selling either diet products consisting of low fat, low carbohydrate products or an organic product snack bar selling vegetables free of pesticide and genetic manipulation. As in the first exercise, they were asked to make a preliminary decision, after which they were given the chance to seek additional information or not.
The results showed that those adopting the power pose reported greater feelings of power than those in the constrictive pose. Those in the high power expansive posture also reported higher ‘confirmatory information processing’ than in the low power control condition. That is, they did not seek information that contradicted their initial decisions.
In the third experiment, subjects were asked to either make a fist or keep their hand relaxed. In this experiment the subjects worked on a political evaluation task. They were assessed for their felt power and rated on their flexibility with which they made decisions.
The results confirmed the results found in the first two experiments – those with high power embodiment used information that confirmed their decision rather than seek out new or contradictory information. Importantly, those that used high power body language also had more confidence in their decisions. In other words, by simply making a fist, the subjects were more confident in their decision.
The fourth experiment repeated the procedure of the third experiment with one modification. This time the subjects in the control group were told to hold their hand open, but physically strain it. The researchers wanted to rule out physical strain as a possible reason that those in the high power condition behaved the way they did.
The results showed that physical strain was not a factor in the behaviour as those in the high power (making a fist) over those in the open hand, but strained, still exhibited the same decision biases.
Drawing Conclusions
By adopting power posture through artificial manipulation and carrying body posture as one might do naturally, it affects how people make decisions and their relative openness to ideas that contradict their previous assessments.
When people make a fist or carry an open body posture, they tend to be less open and pay less attention to new ideas and put more confidence in their current biased views.
A high power poser is less likely to ask diagnostics questions to uncover potentially new information, and instead rely on more leading questions to elicit information that confirms to their initial opinions.
In other words, those adopting power postures are less likely to look at a dilemma from the perspective of others.
This tells us that high-power decision makers are less careful in processing information and tend to overestimate the validity of their decisions due to higher levels of personal confidence. This can lead to overestimation of the quality of their decisions and possibly lead to errors.
On the other hand, confidence in one’s opinions, despite being incorrect, can be a method for attaining and maintaining leadership.
Power poses, while leading to feelings of power, confidence and ascribed leadership, does, however, have a downside – and that downside is that one is less likely to place importance on facts or opinions which are not congruent with currently held opinions. This in turn may lead to costly mistakes.
Image Credit: Elvert Barnes
Image Credit: swong95765
Resources
Fischer, Julia; Peter Fischer; Birte Englich; Nilüfer Aydin and Dieter Frey. Empower My Decisions: The Effects of Power Gestures on Confirmatory Information Processing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2019. 47: 1146-1154.