What the Power Pose Controversy Reveals About Science

This is why you need a long breath if you want to study Psychology. But you learn a lot about the ambiguity of stuff.

I'm a neuroscience student and just gave a presentation on this topic. Replication studies, pre-registered hypotheses, and larger sample sizes are an absolute must! Also longitudinal studies! There's no point in publishing research that's not even accurate and it's been a huge problem for sure. I also want to point out that this is a well-known problem in the field and it's something that researchers nowadays are actively working to remedy!

11:20 Let’s hear it for negative results! The Michelson-Morley experiment is a beautiful example of a negative result that led to revolutionary new science.

A memorable idea can travel far before the evidence catches up. Revisiting it helps put the findings in perspective.

I didn't know about preregistering studies until I saw this video. Thank you!

The first reference to the "power pose" that came to my mind is from the world of fiction: The *Blackadder the Third* episode "Sense and Senility." That’s the one with two seasoned actors who teach the Prince Regent some tips on giving a public speech. They call it the heroic stance. I highly recommend it.

I immediately thought 'they felt more powerful than what? Compared to 'low power pose' or compared to a baseline? Was a baseline established? Where's the neutral pose for a control?' Really? Nobody noticed there was no control group? Nobody talked to any actual doctors about the effects of holding a curled up position? It's kind of common knowledge it's bad to constrict the stomach...

citing the power pose seem to be a favorite of public speaking trainings I have beem too.

Posture can help break me out of a depression funk, if only a little. Standing up when I want to be in the fetal position feels like power posing

Maybe make every Masters student (or early PhD student in places that don't do Masters as much) run a replication study. It would be a wonderful intro to research. They get to be really hands on and think critically about methodology. Then that study becomes part of their thesis no matter how it turns out. Theses may not be published articles, but they're usually available online. I'm in math where replication isn't a thing. But a lot of early grad student research is "improve this bound" or "extend this theorem to this similar case". It's useful to the field and it makes you really read and understand the original paper. It also gives you a clear template for your work. It often feels like taking the original proof apart, cleaning all the pieces and putting them back together so they run more efficiently. I feel like replication would have a similar vibe.

Every time a journal publishes a result it should commit to publishing the best criticisms/contrary evidence recieved within certain time frames (eg one year, 5 years). Even most statistically significant results are probably going to be false and this solves the strong incentive problem that keeps us from ever seeing the criticism or encouraging people to do the follow-up studies. It also solves the problem of bias -- not the largely non-existent kind where scientists makeup/force results -- but the kind where people are just more reluctant to try and show certain results (who wants to be the person who is trying to show teachers don't matter, diverse groups don't think better etc).

6:07 how did the researchers test this power pose across cultures? the hands on hips pose is a Superman type pose that not every culture has, e.g., sumo poses, any type of warriors on horses, spear and shield warriors. How did they remove placebo effect?

Honestly we still need to use our common sense. I instantly called BS when people said it could greatly increase testosterone. Good to be shown right, years later.