Abstract
Recent research has found that a specific manipulation of body postures can influence psychological states associated with power, including an individual’s feeling of power and risk-taking tendency, but the results vary. The purpose of this study is to replicate previous studies. A pilot experiment examined the validity of 10 postures extracted from multiple former studies. Only 4 postures were consistent with former studies. Experiment 1 replicates the study conducted by Carney, Cuddy, and Yap ( 2010 ). The results revealed that posture manipulations did not affect the participants’ risk-taking tendency. Experiment 2 is a preregistered experiment to replicate the study of Carney et al. ( 2010 ). Different from Experiment 1, data were analyzed with a Bayesian approach. The results of the former study again failed to be replicated, which indicates that the posture manipulations could not yield any effect on both power feelings and individuals’ risk-taking tendency. Thus, we concluded that (a) holding a specific series of body posture perceived as high or low power does not affect individuals’ feeling of power, and (b) holding a specific series of body posture perceived as high or low power does not affect individuals’ risk-taking tendency.
Highlights
Power has been studied for many years in the disciplines of sociology and psychology
In the study by Carney et al (2010), researchers assumed that holding specific body postures for 2 minutes could manipulate individuals’ sense of power and yield an effect on the risk-taking tendency, the self-reported feeling of power, and specific hormone levels
Along with multiple studies focused on posture manipulations, these findings suggest that posture is a valid way to manipulate power
Summary
Power has been studied for many years in the disciplines of sociology and psychology. In the study by Carney et al (2010), researchers assumed that holding specific body postures for 2 minutes could manipulate individuals’ sense of power and yield an effect on the risk-taking tendency, the self-reported feeling of power, and specific hormone levels. Results from multiple studies support the same conclusion: power can yield an effect on the risk-taking tendency (Brinol, Petty, Valle, Rucker, & Becerra, 2007; Inesi, 2010; see Morrison, Rothman, & Soll, 2011) Researchers explain their conclusions from different aspects and views, all their studies support the conclusion that a higher feeling of power tends to exhibit more risky behaviors: even when power was manipulated in different tasks and risk-taking behaviors were measured in different ways, this result remained stable. Details and data can be accessed in the supplementary material
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