AMY CUDDY: YOUR BODY LANGUAGE SHAPES WHO

YOU ARE
Warm-up:
1. How important do you think body language is?
2. Do you consider yourself to have good posture?
3. Have you ever felt as if you were in a job or class that you were not qualified for? How did
this affect how you acted?
4. What advice would you give to someone before they went on an interview?
Vocabulary
Assertive

a. deep wet sand that sucks in anyone

trying to walk across it
b. a person who pretends to be
someone else in order to deceive
others
a. not afraid to express an opinion or
disagree

Inevitable

Heckle

Quicksand

b. more important, strong, or

noticeable than anything else of
the same type

Impostor

c. To pretend

Primate

f. to interrupt a public speech or

performance with loud unfriendly
statements or questions

Dominance

g. a member of the most developed and

intelligent group of mammals, including
humans, monkeys, and apes

Fake it

h. unavoidable

Comprehension
1. What does the scientific term nonverbals refer to?
A ASL (American Sign Language)
B Physician-patient interactions
C Body language
D Judgments of beauty

2. What are typical nonverbal expressions of power and dominance?

A Pounding feet or hands on a hard surface
B Expanding the body to look bigger
C Holding your own body
D Touching your neck

3. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of less powerful people compared to

powerful people?
A They are less able to think abstractly
B They are more likely to avoid risks
C They are less assertive

D They are more optimistic

4. What did the results of the subjects who took power poses for two minutes reveal about
changes in their hormone levels?
A Both their cortisol and testosterone levels shot up
B Both their cortisol and testosterone levels decreased
C Neither their cortisol nor testosterone levels showed a significant change
D Their cortisol levels decreased and their testosterone levels increased

True or False
Questions:
Power posing can be applied to social threat situations.
True
False
Where can you actually apply this? Which we cared about, of course. And so we
think where you want to use this is evaluative situations, like social threat
situations.

While waiting for a job interview, most people sit confidently at a desk.
True
False
What do you do before you go into a job interview? You do this. You're sitting down.
You're looking at your iPhone -- or your Android, not trying to leave anyone
out. You're looking at your notes,you're hunching up, making yourself small

Power posing helps people be themselves in a job interview.

True
False

This is what's affected. These kinds of things. People are bringing their true selves,
basically. They're bringing themselves. They bring their ideas, but as
themselves, with no, you know, residue over them.

In a job interview, receiving no nonverbal feedback is worse than being heckled.

True
False
Imagine this is the person interviewing you. So for five minutes, nothing, and this is
worse than being heckled.

After the job interviews, the interviewers liked all participants equally as well.
True
False
, "We want to hire these people," all the high-power posers. "We don't want to hire
these people. We also evaluate these people much more positively overall."

Power posing affects the content of a speech.

True
False
It's not about the content of the speech. It's about the presence that they're
bringing to the speech.

Amy Cuddy was called smart as a child.

True
False
After her car accident, most people told her she should try to finish college.
True
False
She graduated from college at the same time as her friends.

True
False
Amy Cuddy was able to help a student become more confident in class.
True
False
Which of the following is NOT an example of an evaluative situation given by Amy Cuddy?
Giving a presentation
Teenagers at the lunchroom table
Getting into a car accident
When Amy Cuddy had a car accident:
She broke her arm
She got a head injury
She broke her neck
When Amy Cuddy went to Princeton, she thought:
"I'm not supposed to be here"
"Fake it till you make it"
"Oh my gosh, I'm doing it!"

People should practice power poses:

When they are at work
When they are alone
When they are talking to someone

Discussion

Explain the relationship between hormones (specifically testosterone and cortisol)

and powerful people. How do hormone levels influence whom we might want as a
high-power leader?
How did the car accident and head injury Amy Cuddy suffered when she was 19
affect her personally and academically?
What does Amy Cuddy mean when she says, Dont fake it till you make it. Fake it
till you become it?