You’ve probably seen the TED talk — over 60 million views, one of the platform’s most-watched of all time. Stand like a superhero for two minutes, the claim goes, and you’ll change your own hormones: more testosterone, less cortisol, more confidence. It became a cultural shorthand — “fake it till you become it,” repeated in job-interview advice, pre-competition rituals, and no shortage of gym content over the years.
It’s a great story. Most of it isn’t true, and — remarkably — the researcher who ran the original study has said so herself.
QUICK ANSWER: No — the 2010 finding that power posing raises testosterone and lowers cortisol has not held up. Larger, independent replications found no hormonal effect, a broad statistical analysis of dozens of related studies found the evidence lacking, and the study’s own lead author has publicly said she no longer believes the effect is real. Some studies still find modest effects on self-reported confidence and risk-taking — a psychological effect, not a hormonal one.
What Is Power Posing?
“Power posing” refers to holding an expansive, open body posture — think Wonder Woman, hands on hips, chest out — versus a contractive, closed one, for a short period (typically one to two minutes). The idea was popularized by a 2012 TED talk from Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy, built on a 2010 study she co-authored with Dana Carney and Andy Yap.
The Original 2010 Study — What It Actually Claimed
The original study, published in Psychological Science, had 42 participants briefly hold either expansive or contractive poses. The researchers reported that high-power posers showed elevated testosterone, decreased cortisol, and greater self-reported feelings of power and risk tolerance than low-power posers—and that both effects held for men and women alike. It’s a small study, but the finding was dramatic and easy to summarize, which is exactly what made it spread: a two-minute, free, private action that supposedly reshaped your own biology before a big moment. That’s an irresistible pitch, and it’s part of why the claim outran the actual strength of the evidence behind it for years.
The Replication That Changed Everything
In 2015, Ranehill and colleagues attempted a direct replication using a sample roughly five times larger than the original. The result: no effect on testosterone and no effect on self-reported feelings of power — the two headline findings from the original study. The replication did find partial support for effects on cortisol and risk-taking behavior, muddying the picture rather than settling it. A separate replication attempt at the University of Pennsylvania, published in Hormones and Behavior, went further: the researchers found no support for any of the original effects, and noted that, if anything, power posing appeared to decrease testosterone in some participants.
When the Study’s Own Author Disavowed It
This is the part most “power posing” content leaves out entirely, and it’s the most important part of the story. In 2016, Dana Carney — the lead author of the original 2010 study — published a public statement saying she no longer believed the power-posing effect on hormones was real. She specifically cited concerns about the small original sample size and the statistical practices used in the paper — the pattern researchers now call “p-hacking,” where a study’s analysis is flexible enough to find a significant result even when the underlying effect isn’t reliably there. It’s genuinely rare for a researcher to publicly walk back their own widely cited finding this directly. That alone should tell you something about how seriously to weigh the original claim.
What About the Larger Analysis?
Beyond the individual replication attempts, a 2017 statistical analysis examined a broader collection of 33-34 studies related to power posing using a technique called p-curve analysis, designed to detect whether a body of published findings reflects a real underlying effect or selective reporting of positive results. The conclusion: the evidence that power posing produces the claimed effects was lacking. Combined with the failed direct replications and the original author’s own retraction, this isn’t a case of “the science is still out” — it’s about as close to a settled negative finding as social psychology gets.
Is There Anything Real Here?
Worth being fair to the story rather than just debunking it. Several replication attempts found that briefly holding an expansive posture affects self-reported feelings, even when the hormonal claims didn’t hold up — people who hold expansive poses sometimes report feeling more confident or powerful in the moment, and some studies found effects on risk-taking behavior even without a corresponding hormone change. That’s a genuinely different, more modest claim than “changes your hormones,” and it’s worth separating the two: a psychological or behavioral effect from briefly changing your posture is plausible and has some support; a reliable neuroendocrine effect on testosterone and cortisol from two minutes of posing does not.
Coach’s Note: I’ve had lifters ask me about power posing before a max attempt, half-joking, half-hoping there’s a hormone hack behind it. There isn’t. What actually works is far more boring: a consistent pre-lift routine, a set breathing pattern, and enough reps under your belt that walking up to the bar feels familiar instead of intimidating. If striking a confident pose is part of that routine for you, keep it — just know it’s a mental cue, not a testosterone switch.
Does Posture Affect Training Performance?
This is where the story becomes relevant to your training, and it’s worth staying disciplined about the difference between the biology and the psychology. There’s no good evidence that briefly striking a confident pose before a lift changes your hormones or your actual strength output. What’s far more plausible — though this deserves its own caveat — is that how you carry yourself before a heavy set can influence arousal, focus, and perceived readiness through ordinary psychological pathways, not a two-minute hormone shift. Athletes have long used pre-lift rituals — deliberate breathing, a set stance, a specific mental cue — and there’s nothing wrong with that as a routine that helps you focus. The distinction worth holding onto is that this works, if it works, as a psychological habit and warm-up cue, not because it rewrites your endocrine system the way the original TED talk implied.
Common Power Posing Myths
❌ Myth: Power posing for two minutes measurably raises your testosterone.
✅ Reality: The original finding didn’t replicate in larger, independent studies, and the study’s own lead author has publicly said she no longer believes the hormonal effect is real.
❌ Myth: The science on power posing is still genuinely unsettled.
✅ Reality: Between failed replications, a broad p-curve analysis finding the evidence lacking, and the original author’s retraction, this is closer to a settled negative finding than an open question.
❌ Myth: If the hormone claim is false, power posing does nothing at all.
✅ Reality: Some studies still find effects on self-reported feelings of power or risk-taking behavior — a modest psychological effect is more plausible than the debunked hormonal one.
❌ Myth: This kind of retraction is common in psychology research.
✅ Reality: It’s genuinely rare for a study’s own lead author to publicly disavow a widely cited finding as directly as Dana Carney did in this case.
Bodybuilder’s Take
Standing like a superhero for two minutes won’t change your testosterone or cortisol — the researcher who ran the original study has said as much herself. If striking a confident posture before a heavy set helps you feel more focused and ready to lift, that’s a fine, low-cost habit to keep. Just don’t confuse a psychological warm-up ritual with an actual hormonal intervention — for that, the fundamentals covered in our testosterone and cortisol guides do far more real work than any pose ever could.
