--- title: How to Use 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/4305165/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence-2/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-22T19:30:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:17.872Z og:title: How to Use 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/4305165/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66d66c9639fd5860/6988905e196cf4055603b531/confident-body-pose.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5197 og:image:height: 2923 og:image:alt: confident-body-pose og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Use 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/blt66d66c9639fd5860/6988905e196cf4055603b531/confident-body-pose.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Use Body Language to Become More Confident > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Shane Parrish/Farnam St](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish/Farnam St Apr 22, 2016 7:30 PM UTC  cut-out humans cut-out humans Getty Images by [Shane Parrish/Farnam St](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish/Farnam St Apr 22, 2016 7:30 PM 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?** **Join over 60,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** 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/)**_._** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4305165/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4305165/amy-cuddy-body-language-confidence-2/"},"headline":"How to Use Body Language to Become More Confident","datePublished":"2016-04-22T19:30:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:17.872Z","description":"'Don’t fake it ’til you make it. 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