Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 8-12-2020 The Role of Activation in the Relationship between Power Posing and Task Performance Jeremy Walter Marshall [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Marshall, Jeremy Walter, "The Role of Activation in the Relationship between Power Posing and Task Performance" (2020). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The Role of Activation in the Relationship between Power Posing and Task Performance by Jeremy Walter Marshall A Thesis in Experimental Psychology Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science August 12, 2020 Copyright ©2020, Jeremy Walter Marshall We approve the thesis of Jeremy Walter Marshall: Joseph S. Baschnagel, Ph.D. Date Associate Professor of Psychology Chair, Department of Psychology Faculty Adviser and Chair of the Thesis Committee Tina M. Sutton, Ph.D. Date Associate Professor of Psychology Graduate Director, MS Experimental Psychology Reader John E. Edlund, PhD Date Associate Professor of Psychology Reader i Acknowledgements A warm thank you to my family, friends, and patient thesis committee for inspiring and helping me along my windy path toward becoming a master’s recipient. May your kindness, love, and good deeds return to you, tenfold. ii Abstract This research analyzed the psychophysiological effects that expansive and contractive body poses have on the human body. Participants were asked to hold either an expansive or contractive body pose for two minutes prior to participating in a Color-Word Interference Test (CWT, which induced stress) and a gambling task (which measured risk tolerance). Heart rate variability (HRV) and electrodermal activity (EDA) for each participant was measured to gauge stress throughout the experiment. Positive and negative affect scales were used to measure mood before and after posing. Results of this research did not support our hypotheses, which were: 1. Expansive, dominant poses would cause an increase in performance on the stressful task, a decrease in both psychological and psychophysiological stress response, and an increase in risk tolerance and 2. Contractive, submissive poses would yield the opposite effect. This research was unable to find a connection between posture, risk tolerance, and feelings of improved mood. iii Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Introduction Error! Bookmark not defined. Body Language and Emotion .................................................................................................. 2 Activation Theory and Psychophysiological Measures ......................................................... 10 The Current Study’s Contribution ......................................................................................... 13 Purpose of the Research ........................................................................................................ 15 Hypotheses............................................................................................................................. 15 Method 17 Participants ............................................................................................................................ 17 Independent Variables ........................................................................................................... 17 Dependent Variables .............................................................................................................. 18 Design .................................................................................................................................... 18 Procedure ............................................................................................................................... 20 iv Data Reduction and Analysis ................................................................................................ 21 Results 24 Hypothesis 1: Stress Reactivity ............................................................................................. 24 Hypothesis 2: Risk Tolerance ................................................................................................ 26 Hypothesis 3: Task Performance ........................................................................................... 26 Discussion 27 Summary ................................................................................................................................ 27 Limitations of the Current Study ........................................................................................... 27 Final thoughts on Power Posing Research ............................................................................ 31 Conclusion 33 References 34 Appendices 40 v List of Figures 1 High Power Poses …………………………………………………………………….... 40 2 Low Power Poses ………………………………………………………………………. 41 3 CWT Example …………………………………………………………………………. 42 4 Outlier Histogram …………………………………………………………………….... 47 5 Outlier Box Plot .……………………………………………………………………….. 48 vi List of Tables 1 EDA During Power Posing …………………………………………………………….. 49 2 HF-HRV During Power Posing ………………………………………………………... 50 3 EDA During CWT ……………………………………………………………………... 51 4 HF-HRV During CWT ……………………………………………………………….... 52 5 Main and interaction effects of CWT and Posing Group on HRV ……………….……. 53 6 EDA and HRV Descriptive Stats ………………………………………………………. 54 7 Changes in Positive Affect Between High and Low Power Posing Groups ………….... 55 8 Changes in Negative Affect Between High and Low Power Posing Groups ………….. 56 9 Changes in Line Rating Between High and Low Power Posing Groups ………………. 57 10 Main and interaction effects of Power Poses and Posing Group on Affect ……………. 58 11 Descriptive Statistics for Mood Before and After Posing ……………………………... 59 12 Differences in Gambling Decision Posing Groups ………………………………….…. 60 13 CWT Task Performance and Stress Responses ………………………………………... 61 14 CWT Task Performance for High and Low Power Posing Groups ……………………. 62 vii POSING AND PERFORMANCE 1 The Role of Activation in the Relationship between Power Posing and Task Performance It is established that internal feelings and motivations of human beings are revealed through nonverbal displays, such as facial expressions and body posture (Navarro & Karlins, 2008). As humans that interact with each other, we understand that types of facial expressions and body postures are actions arising from the presence of emotions. In humans, happiness is often accompanied by a smile, while sadness is known to produce a frown. Research on body posture and emotion has showed that humans can accurately interpret emotions expressed through both a person’s static body posture (Coulson, 2004) and a person’s gait (Roether, Omlor, Christensen, & Giese, 2009). Research has showed that human emotion can cause changes in nonverbal displays, and for facial expressions, this relationship has shown to be bidirectional – facial expressions can change human emotion to create feelings of happiness, sadness, and more (Soussignan, 2002; Wild, 2002). Research by Carney, Cuddy, & Yap (2010) suggested that body posture could impact human emotion through an activity referred to as Power Posing. Power posing is the act of utilizing the entire body to either increase or decrease the body’s perceived size to form a high-power or low-power pose, respectively (Carney et al., 2010). Work by Carney et al. (2010) has suggested that power posing can change a body’s response to stress as measured by salivary testosterone and cortisol. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between power poses and emotion measured through autonomic arousal. We aimed to test if power posing could alter a person’s response to a mildly stressful task by lowering autonomic arousal responses. At the time of the current study’s conception, work by Carney et al. (2010) was of great interest to the scientific POSING AND PERFORMANCE 2 community. Today, however, Power Posing has largely been debunked with many studies failing to support its claims (Simmons & Simonsohn, 2017). Like the many replication studies involving power posing, this study was unable to demonstrate that power posing could impact human emotion. Body Language and Emotion Facial Expressions. Human emotions have observable effects on movement of the entire body, with much research focused on the face. Research on how the face reacts to human emotion has laid a foundation for understanding how the body reacts to emotional stimuli. Work by Paul Ekman has shown that happiness, sadness, anger, contempt, fear, surprise, and disgust have facial expressions that are each exhibited by human beings irrespective of age, culture, or geographic location (Ekman & Friesen, 1975). These are known as the Seven Universal Facial Expressions, and each expression has specific muscles that are activated to yield its presence. For example, a genuine smile indicating happiness involves the contraction of the orbicularis oculi and the zygomaticus major, which causes the lower eyelids and cheeks to flex, respectively. This also causes crow’s feet to appear – which become more apparent with age (Ekman & Friesen, 1975). We use these facial