--- title: How to Use Your Body Language to Become More Confident description: “Don’t fake it ’til you make it. Fake it 'til you become it.” canonical: https://time.com/4187042/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-22T05:01:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:07:38.124Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Use Your Body Language to Become More Confident og:description: “Don’t fake it ’til you make it. Fake it 'til you become it” og:url: https://time.com/4187042/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2b82de9c7a68c6e/698879d5bc6cfc08143db528/amy-cuddy-power-pose-confidence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Amy Cuddy at Cosmopolitan Magazine's Fun Fearless Life Conference in New York City on Nov. 8, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Use Your Body Language to Become More Confident twitter:description: “Don’t fake it ’til you make it. Fake it 'til you become it” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2b82de9c7a68c6e/698879d5bc6cfc08143db528/amy-cuddy-power-pose-confidence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Use Your Body Language to Become More Confident > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Jan 22, 2016 5:01 AM UTC  Amy Cuddy at Cosmopolitan Magazine's Fun Fearless Life Conference in New York City on Nov. 8, 2014. Amy Cuddy at Cosmopolitan Magazine's Fun Fearless Life Conference in New York City on Nov. 8, 2014. Craig Barritt—Getty Images for Cosmopolitan Magazine and WME Live by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Jan 22, 2016 5:01 AM UTC We all pretty much know that our mood is reflected in our body language. When you think of somewhat lacking confidence or lacking enthusiasm, a common mental image comes to mind, and research has shown it to be about right: Hunching, smallness, droopiness, etc. This seems obviously and intuitively true. Unsurprisingly, our cousins in the animal kingdom are similar in their displays of body language. In her book [_Presence_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316256579/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fsp%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316256579&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20&linkId=REDQFDY5K4Q26ZMP), Harvard psychologist **Amy Cuddy** has an interesting section on the study of body language in animals–which is in many ways much simpler to do because primates and snakes, lacking the same theories of mind as humans, don’t really fake their body language. --- > “” --- So we’re not alone: body language is a key indicator across the animal kingdom. But the more interesting question is the inversion of that idea: Can we manipulate our minds by altering our body language? Can we actually “fake it” ’til we “make it”? Amy Cuddy seems to think so, but she has something to add. \*\*\* Cuddy gave her first [TED talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/amy%5Fcuddy%5Fyour%5Fbody%5Flanguage%5Fshapes%5Fwho%5Fyou%5Fare/transcript?language=en) in 2012 on body language and how it influences our interactions with others, both how we act and how others perceive us. It turned out to be a hit, with over 30 million views to date. The key idea in the speech was the “power pose” – manipulating your own body language to make yourself feel more poised and confident. Here’s a key section of the speech: --- > “” --- There are a few very interesting pieces in here. Not only are the poses of confident body language having a significant chemical effect in the “posers,” but it’s affecting their behavior in a significant way. A higher propensity to gamble stemming from increased confidence. Of course, social science has already told us fairly clearly that the latter is true: Confidence _does_ lead to a higher propensity to gamble. If the gamble remains the same (the odds are generally not favorable towards the gambler), we might call any increase in confidence in the face of the same odds a propensity towards [_over_](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/04/bias-from-overconfidence/)[\-confidence](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/04/bias-from-overconfidence/). (And of course, confidence has a host of _positive_effects on decision making as well, like less dithering.) So changing body language can actually cause us to make more _mistakes_ if we’re operating in the wrong realm; this is something we must stay on guard against. **Is this a situation where great confidence is warranted and desired?** \*\*\* Cuddy’s main point is that there real practical effects to manipulating our body language: We really can influence perception. In one experiment, some interviewees were directed to do “power posing” before an interview, whereas others we not. Upon seeing the videos of both, a group of third-party observers — unaware that one group had been posing and another had not, and in fact had no idea the aims of the study — wanted to hire the high-power posers: --- > “” --- In her book, Cuddy says this is not because we’re fooling them into believing we’re more confident than we really are. It’s because we’re fooling ourselves _out_ of our own **lack** of self-confidence. What the interviewer sees is real. Inauthenticity is too noticeable; it usually backfires. --- > “” --- Cuddy concludes her book by bringing in a theory of “Self-nudging” – manipulating our own body language to get ourselves in the right frame of mind, where we can be authentically present and comfortable in our skin. So, can we “fake it til we make it?” Sure, but go one step further. --- > “” --- **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2016/01/amy-cuddy-body-language/)**_._** **Join over 60,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4187042/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4187042/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence/"},"headline":"How to Use Your Body Language to Become More Confident","datePublished":"2016-01-22T05:01:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:07:38.124Z","description":"“Don’t fake it ’til you make it. 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