Of Mind and Matter
Amy Cuddy's TED Talk is the second most viewed of all time — and just a taste of what she has to say.
Long before Amy Cuddy was a Harvardprofessor and a TED star, she was anambitious college student, the kind whowould drive 900 miles through the nightto make morning class in Boulder.
That’s what she and two friends weredoing the night their Jeep Cherokeerolled over on a Wyoming highway enroute from a conference in Montana.Asleep in the back seat, Cuddy (Psych’98),then a 19-year-old sophomore, was ejected.Her skull fractured on the road.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc]
Watch Amy Cuddy's TED Talk.
The prognosis was grim.Her IQ fell30 points,language baffled her,doctorssaid to forget about college.But this was an intolerable thought.
“I had a very simple idea of who I was,”she told a Boulder audience earlier thisyear, “and being smart [was] part of that.”
Cuddy resumed school, stopped, startedagain. She spent a lot of time at a Boulderrehabilitation hospital.
The ballerina from rural Pennsylvaniakept at it.
She worked as a rollerskating waitress atL.A. Diner on 28th Street, discovered socialpsychology, wrote an honors thesis and,four years after her original CU-Boulderclassmates, graduated — magna cum laude.
She went on to graduate school in psychologyat Princeton and, in 2008, joinedthe faculty at Harvard Business School,where she studies and teaches the psychologyof persuasion, power and negotiation.
Cuddy’s efforts to overcome her headinjury provide a moving context for hersubsequent academic research about howthe body influences the mind and the implications for everyday life. Aspects of herwork served as the basis for a massivelypopular TED Talk that has inspired peoplearound the world and catapulted Cuddyinto the front ranks of public intellectuals.
Time named her to its 2012 list of“Game Changers” and Business Insiderto its 2013 list of “50 Women Who AreChanging the World.” Science magazineranked her among the “Top 100 MostFollowed Scientists on Twitter.” She’scurrently one of the World EconomicForum’s “Young Global Leaders.”
“The words ‘it can’t be done’ or ‘itis too difficult’ simply are not in hervocabulary,” said Bernadette Park, theCU-Boulder professor who was Cuddy’shonors thesis adviser. “What she hasaccomplished is truly remarkable.”
In the 21-minute TED Talk, “Your BodyShapes Who You Are” — the secondmost-viewed of all time, with more than33 million views on the TED site and millionsmore on YouTube — Cuddy focusedon the self-confidence many people generateby adopting “power poses” beforestressful situations, such as job interviews,negotiations or speeches, and how thiscan influence outcomes in their favor.
In high-power poses we expand ourbodies to occupy lots of space — assumingwide stances with arms on hipsor extended above the head, maybe in atriumphant V, for instance. Cuddy callsthem “postures of victory.”
Research by Cuddy and others has shownthat holding high-power poses for two minutescan increase a hormone that inducesfeelings of power (testosterone), decrease ahormone that induces feelings of stress (cortisol)and embolden people to take risks.
Holding low-power poses for twominutes (a fetal position, say) has theopposite effects.
“Your body,” Cuddy said, “is always inconversation with your mind.”
Other research showed that we tendto respond more favorably to individuals— job applicants, for example— who exhibit personal power througha palpable sense of presence.
The TED Talk made Cuddy a star, butpower posing is just one aspect of herbroader interest in the dynamics of personalpower and the ways people evaluateand influence each other.
Still, the talk has led to other bigopportunities, including a book project,Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to YourBiggest Challenges, a New York Times bestsellerpublished in December.
For the book, Cuddy widened her lens,distilling and personalizing a vast body ofsocial science research about ways peoplecan elicit a relaxed, confident, honest personain stressful situations. The fundamentalidea is to induce a state of presence, whichshe defines as “the state of being attunedto and able to comfortably express our truethoughts, feelings, values and potential.”
Like power posing, being authenticallypresent leaves people relaxed and ableto access their best and boldest selves instressful moments, increasing the oddsof desirable outcomes and all but assuringa satisfying sense of having donetheir best, irrespective of outcome.
For a long time this wasn’t natural forCuddy, who endearingly exposes her ownpast struggles to summon her best selfin high-stakes encounters with peers,professional superiors and others.
She learned, she said, to “fake it until youmake it,” a mantra she’s modified based onher research results. Now she tells peopleto “fake it until you become it.”
Cuddy combines grit and high-calibersmarts with an open enthusiasm forpop culture. A serious live-music fan andself-described “Dead Head,” she sprinklesreferences to pop-culture figures throughouther writing and in conversation — musicianDave Grohl of Nirvana, writer Neil Gaimanand actress Julianne Moore all come up.
Cuddy continues to teach at Harvard,where she’s an associate professor, but alsospends a lot of time talking about her workto general audiences at high schools, homelessshelters, churches and public halls.
“I care about talking to people outsidethe ivory tower,” she said.That’s not to say college towns havelost their appeal: Cuddy and her husbandhave considered buying a part-timehome in Boulder.
“I want to get back out here,” shesaid during her winter visit. “The balanceis right here.”
Photos byRyan Lash (top);James Duncan Davidson, Ryan Lash