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The Humintell Blog August 2, 2022

Meta Analysis: Psychological Effects of Power Poses

Body language affects how others see us, but can it also change how we see ourselves?

Amy Cuddy’s infamous 2012 Ted Talk (above) claimed that power posing was the key to confidence. Critics shut down her theory for years, but the latest research indicates that there may be some truth in it after all.

In a recently published meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin, a team of psychologists shed light on the possible physical, behavioral, and psychological effects of power poses and other body positions.


Background

Initial studies on power posing indicated that engaging in expansive body positions will raise testosterone levels, lower cortisol levels, and increase risk taking. A number of these studies received a lot of media attention when they were published but faced enormous criticism because their results could not be replicated. Since then, additional studies on the effects of body positions have been published, but their results have been mixed.


The Methodology

Researchers from Germany and the United States collected and analyzed findings from past studies to determine whether posture influences a person’s self-perception, behavior, and hormone levels.

They searched 12 scientific databases using terms such as “body position” and “power pose” and found over 24,000 potentially relevant studies. Only studies that used an experimental design with random assignment, which would allow causal inferences to be drawn, were retained. To avoid publication bias, the team also sent out requests for unpublished data.

The resulting sample is the largest sample of studies on body positions so far, consisting of 128 experiments with a total of almost 10,000 participants.

The team focused on two types of body positions:

  1. Power poses: Standing or sitting in a very expansive way, taking up a lot of space. A low-power pose would be crossing your legs and folding your arms while standing, or bowing your head and putting your hands on your lap while seated.
  2. Upright postures: Standing erect or sitting up straight in a chair versus bowing your head and slumping.

Theoretical and empirical research have suggested that power poses are nonverbal expressions of dominance, whereas upright postures are displays of prestige.


The Results

The team found clear evidence for the effects of both body position types on self-perception.

These nonverbal expressions of status clearly produced larger effects than did other forms of embodied feedback (e.g., facial feedback or arm flexion): When experimental participants took power or upright postures, they felt better and were more confident than when they took contractive or hunched body positions. The effects held for males and females of all ages in both Western and Eastern countries.

There were also some effects on behaviors, such as task persistence and antisocial behavior. However, these findings were less robust and might be influenced by outliers and/or publication bias.

There was no evidence for effects on hormones (e.g., testosterone, cortisol) or other physiological indicators (e.g., heart rate, skin conductance).


Questions Remain


Although people may feel more confident, it remains to be seen if they act more confident when standing tall.

Some research has found that power posing does affect behavioral traits like task persistence and antisocialness, but other studies have not. Only those that have found bigger effects have been published, which means researchers haven’t been able to examine studies with less significant results, a phenomenon known as publication bias.

There are some study design limitations that prevent the researchers from being able to say that standing tall can directly make you more confident. Most of the studies they analyzed didn’t have a control group; the researchers didn’t compare people power-posing to people standing in a neutral position. Instead, they asked participants to adopt either a dominant, open, or submissive posture.


Confidence vs Competence

nonverbal power of postureIf our posture can result in different chemical configurations being manifest in our brain, can this actually help us seem competent and get a job? The answer, according to Dr. Matsumoto, is a little mixed.

On the one hand, there is certainly a lot conveyed through a sense of powerful posture. Not only can it make other people, such as an interviewer for a job, conclude that we are self-confidant, but it can even make us feel more self-assured and competent. This is not to be downplayed.

That said, it does not actually make us competent. Dr. Matsumoto cautions the aspiring power posturer against over-reliance on these tactics:

“My advice would be to first gain actual competence in your field. The last thing anyone should want is to look confident and not really be competent. Once one has a certain degree for a lot of competence, adopting certain body postures may help to feel even more confident and powerful … but they’ve got to believe it and be able to back it up with real competence.”

The post Meta Analysis: Psychological Effects of Power Poses first appeared on Humintell.

Filed Under: Nonverbal Behavior, Science

The Humintell Blog July 20, 2022

Dr. Matsumoto Interview on Metadata Podcast

Dr. Matsumoto recently appeared on the metadata podcast in Brazil where he was interviewed by Victor Santos, Anderson Tamborim and David Leucas.

View the entire video or see below for timestamps to specific questions.

2:00: How did you get interested in the area of nonverbal communication and behavior?

8:25: In your study “Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Emotion of Congenitally and Noncongenitally Blind Individuals” there is solid evidence for the universality of certain facial expressions of emotion in certain contexts.

What other studies exist that support the claim regarding the universality of facial expressions of emotion?

13:05: Although we have solid evidence of the innate character of the facial expression of spontaneous emotion, the posed expression, often used as a linguistic code, meets a cultural demand.

What role do you think posed expressions play in emotional expression in this context of cultural variability?

19:00: We see more and more uses of facial expression analysis of emotions and body language being used in the most diverse segments, especially public security. It is particularly difficult to find field research in the area of security, due to the many ethical issues involved and complications to carry out experiments or obtain the ground truth.

How useful do you think this knowledge is for public security professionals who will need to apply it in real time rather than watching a video in a lab?

23:41: There is a lot of criticism about nonverbal behavior coming from people are involved in areas of science. This happens because there is a lot of junky science which are then promoted by these critics. The conclusion that is made is that nonverbal behaviors such as microexpressions are junk science.

Do you see these kinds of criticisms in the United States or other countries?

28:30: Several researchers including famous names like Lisa Barrett Feldman insist that there is no facial expression of universal emotion and also that the face does not have the power to demonstrate the emotion experience. In some articles we also see a claim that there is no evidence that there is any kind of emotion neural circuit.

What is your point of view on these specific kinds of criticisms?

33:45: When you talk about spontaneous expressions, there’s not a single, specific FACS codification that you can use all the time in any situation. This is because our face is not just made to express microexpressions, it’s also made to be used to agree with people, to show empathy, etc. Most of our facial movements are not taken into consideration in a lot of research. Some researchers say “look at this person who is feeling angry. Matsumoto and Ekman say angry faces must have these AUs (action units). Ah ha! They don’t fit, so that must mean there is no universal angry face”.

What are your thoughts on this issue and point of view?

38:00: What do you think about the inclusion of contempt in the group of primary expressions?

44:40: Can you talk about your publication in 2019 in Frontiers of Psychology entitled “Microexpressions Differentiate Truths From Lies About Future Malicious Intent”?

50:40: In your opinion, what would be the main area involved in the study of facial expression of emotion that needs further research? What do you think is the future of this research area?

The post Dr. Matsumoto Interview on Metadata Podcast first appeared on Humintell.

Filed Under: Emotion, Nonverbal Behavior

The Humintell Blog January 10, 2022

Transparent Masks May Improve Nonverbal Communication

The widespread use of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has posed numerous nonverbal communication barriers, muffling speech and impeding lip-reading.

For deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals, masks have made daily as well as clinical interactions especially difficult.

With approximately 72% of people older than 65 experiencing hearing loss, and with this age group having higher hospitalization rates compared to others, the increased availability of transparent masks may be particularly important in health care settings.

Research and Results

A team led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology evaluated attitudes toward their newly engineered, transparent mask by surveying members of the general population and health care workers, including DHH health care workers.

They reported that 91% of DHH health care workers felt that communication would be easier with a transparent mask, with positive expectations from other health care workers and the general population as well.

The results of their surveys are published in JAMA Network Open.

“Transparent masks have the potential to address or overcome barriers of communication, especially within health care settings,” said corresponding author Giovanni Traverso, MB, BChir, PhD, of the Brigham’s Division of Gastroenterology and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. “It’s a simple message, but it’s important. Patient interactions are critical and there are measures we can take to improve them.”

When members of the general population and health care workers were shown a video of an individual smiling beneath an opaque N95 mask, only 20%-25% were able to identify the corresponding emotion as “happy.” This number increased to roughly 78%-88% percent of respondents when the model wore a transparent N95 mask.

Social Smiles

This research seems to back up what we have suggested in the past: that masks hinder politeness by hiding social smiles. Social smiles involve the pulling up of the lip corners, but the muscle around the eye generally does not activate.

Below you can see examples of a true smile (left) and a social smile (right).

How Masks Hinder Politeness

Even though social smiles are not emotional expressions, they serve an important purpose in all of our daily interactions and communications. Social smiles serve several different purposes including:

  1. Serving as a note of politeness or courtesy or greeting
  2. Telling you something about the person who is smiling
  3. Commenting on things that we say or other emotions that we show

Transparent Face Masks Key?

Among clinicians, nearly 2/3 of general health care workers and 82% of DHH health care workers felt positively about wearing a transparent mask to communicate with patients, with roughly the same proportions, respectively, stating that opaque masks worsened communication with patients. The 123 general health care workers who responded to the survey were employees of Mass General Brigham and the 45 DHH respondents were affiliates of the the Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Losses.

To evaluate perspectives on transparent masks within the general population, the researchers polled 1,000 U.S. adults representative of the national population using the online, opt-in survey provider, YouGov. 45% percent of these respondents reported feeling positively about interacting with a health care worker wearing a transparent mask and 36.6% felt neutrally.

Studies with greater sample sizes, including health care workers from multiple systems, are necessary to validate this study’s results. Future investigations can also evaluate respondents’ abilities to detect a range of different emotions.

The study’s authors hope that their results will demonstrate the utility of transparent masks, especially for DHH individuals.

The authors are part of a larger team of Mass General Brigham and MIT researchers who have engineered a transparent, reusable mask called the TEAL Respirator, which they are working to deploy in hospitals through the efforts of Teal Bio.

“Our lab works to develop products that can help people on the ground,” Traverso said. “We’re working hard to make and improve these masks so that they can be available for our hospital workers, and hopefully the general population as well.”

In the meantime…

It’s clear that social smiles are important for every day interaction. Without the ability to see them and until the widespread use of transparent masks (particularly in healthcare), we may have to take some extra steps to compensate.

Here are some helpful tips we suggest when wearing a mask:

  • Nod when you see someone
  • Wave “hello” and using other gestures to communicate
  • Saying “hi” in a pleasant voice

The post Transparent Masks May Improve Nonverbal Communication first appeared on Humintell.

Filed Under: Nonverbal Behavior

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