The Superman pose
As many of you may know, I am on a quest for greater wellbeing. This involves a lot of research around a wide range of different topics, each with different teachings to take into our day-to-day. I have found from all of this research, and anecdotally, it is useful to have both short, simple tools, and longer, more effortful mindsets, within your overall ‘repertoire’ of tools for greater wellbeing.
Of course, while not always true, a lot of the more significant methods to change our wellbeing do take time and perseverance to implement. This can be quite tiring, and may not give us much feedback to let us know we are heading in the right direction. Hence, it is useful to try some shorter, quicker methods in order to train some simpler, albeit potentially less potent, tools for wellbeing.
This is partly how I stumbled across the ‘Superman pose’. I remember a long time ago hearing about a research project that looked at doctors implementing a static ‘Superman pose’ (the classic hand on hips, wide-stance pose with the eyes focused on a better future out in the distance), and how this actually improved their self-confidence levels. At the time, I thought it was such a ridiculous, yet amazing, method that could be added into a morning routine.
Alas, I did fear it was one of those old wives’ tales that surely couldn’t be true. While I did not want to belittle the great legend of Superman (although I am a Batman man myself), I found it hard to believe simply copying his pose could actually have any change on any parameters of confidence or wellbeing. Fortunately though, there are some very clever psychologists who have completed research looking at just this to help settle the debate.
The craze of power posing began in 2012 after one of the most popular TedTalks ever delivered by Amy Cuddy, an American psychologist. Her message was based on the principle that human’s body language dictates how we think and feel about ourselves. When we are nervous, we cower and shrink, yet when we feel confident, we stand tall with pride. This is present within the animal kingdom, as many animals use their body language to communicate specific messages within their groups.
Cuddy’s study, completed alongside fellow psychologist Dana Carney in 2010, looked at two different groups and the effect their poses played on markers of neuroendocrine levels (ref). Forty-two subjects were randomly recruited into two groups: high-power poses; one pose being a very confident sitting hands-on-head with the feet sprawled on the table, and another being a table lean pose that suggests a boss was about to fire an underperforming colleague with the utmost confidence. (I was disappointed to learn they had not used the actual superman pose itself, but I guess the principles still apply). The low-power poses consisted of a slumped seated position with hands tucked between the knees, and a standing self-hug pose, suggestive of feelings of anxiousness and concern. The participants were actually told the study was on something purely physiological, and nothing to do with the poses themselves or their psychological implications.
Their findings showed that the two minute high-power poses induced a lower cortisol response, alongside elevated testosterone levels, contrasting an elevation in cortisol and decrease in testosterone with the low-power poses. Furthermore, these poses changed the risk taking decisions of the participants, based on a gambling task presented to them - 86% of the high-power posers took a risk versus 60% of the low-power posers, who also showed a greater sense of being risk averse. Lastly, and somewhat not surprisingly, the high-power posers reported greater senses of feeling ‘powerful’ and ‘in charge’ versus the low-power posers.
This led to Cuddy and Carney concluding that power posing can significantly alter the physiological, mental and emotional states of participants, with their findings being substantial. Unfortunately however, despite a sharp rise in the craze of power posing, their results faced a lot of backlash in the world of psychology, with many labelling it as pseudoscience. Eva Ranehill and colleagues from the University of Zurich, tried to replicate Cuddy’s findings in a larger sample of 200 participants, but could not find any changes in neuroendocrine or risk tolerance levels (ref). Even Dana Carney herself, Cuddy’s research partner, later commented in 2015 that she does not believe ‘that power poses effects are real’ (ref). Carney has further gone on to comment that she does not study anything to do with power poses anymore, while listing a range of limitations to her paper with Cuddy.
Interestingly, in a rebuttal to her criticism in 2017, Cuddy and colleagues released a new comprehensive review on what she later called ‘postural feedback’ (as opposed to power posing), that concluded there was indeed ‘robust evidential value’ of postural feedback i.e. power posing on markers of emotional and affective states (ref). In more recent research, scientists from Germany looked at the effect of power-posing on subjectively reported self-esteem, in a laboratory, home and ‘natural’ environment (ref). Their findings found that high-power posing significantly increased self-esteem in all three environments, whereas low-power poses had no effect.
Now, I am no psychologist, nor am I an expert research critiquer. I have been taught through my degrees how to critique scientific evidence, and how to look out for results that are misleading or impacted by factors that were not discussed. Yet, I am certain many others could do a far greater job than I, delving into this area of research to elicit some useful conclusions. From what I can see however, there needs to be far more research conducted in this area before we can confidently confirm that power posing has substantial impacts on our hormone changes - and this is before we begin to ask the question of whether this can be sustained over a period of time, like if someone wanted to implement it into their daily practice in their quest for greater wellbeing.
Does this mean power posing is pointless? Absolutely not. While you read this section, I implore you to go and try a superman pose for one minute. Really embrace the pose, pretend like you are the man himself, and see how you feel. Largely, it’s hilarious. I feel quite ridiculous standing in my living room, imagining a flowing red cape drifting behind me in the non-existent wind of my flat. My partner has shot me many questionable looks, and I fear she may believe I have lost my mind. But the pose itself is arguably fun to do. Anecdotally, many people around the craze of the power-pose have given their reports on the benefits it has elicited for them. If it can make you feel even the tiniest of change, it is worth doing in my eyes.
The reason I think it is worth doing regularly, if you find it generates some positive feelings or thoughts for you, is the sheer simplicity of it. I mentioned earlier about how aspects of improving your wellbeing take a fair bit of time and consistency, and often a lot of brain power is needed to generate the positive effects. The Superman pose? Arguably no effort whatsoever. It is more fun to imagine yourself on the edge of the empire state building, staring into a crime-free New York as the sun sets - but even this doesn’t require much energy at all.
What you may find, as an added bonus, is that it gives you a chance to connect with the current moment. I have spoken about trying to be conscious of your thoughts earlier, and I will dive into the topic of being present later on. We can create substantial positive effects on our mindset from practising being present, starting from an angle of distracting our brain from persistent troubles, all the way through to connecting with our body and how we are feeling. The superman pose itself generates a useful opportunity to connect with the body, as the wide stance and hands on hips pose is not one we are used to, and thus you may find you are more aware of how your body (i.e. hips, knees, feet, breath) is feeling in this position.
So is this a perfect method to sky rocket your self-esteem and self-confidence levels? No. Is it something a little silly and a bit fun to try, with effectively no negatives (apart from your partner questioning your sanity)? Absolutely.