Mahsa Ashabi, Hannah Cummons, Madison Levine, Ashwini Shridhar Does Performing a Power Pose increase your Inclination to Compete? An Experimental Economics Study Mahsa Ashabi, Hannah Cummons, Madison Levine, Ashwini Shridhar

The Power Pose Experiment (2010) The causal chain the original study explored is that performing a power pose increases testosterone levels, which increases your confidence and performance under stress. Tested hormone levels and also had participants engage in a high stress job interview situation after performing the power pose. -study included small sample size and engaged in some p-hacking. - First experiment to show there is an external effect of body pose on hormonal levels - We cannot do hormone tests, but used a behavioral economics game to gauge participants confidence, why asking if they are willing to compete in a small task. Amy Cuddy at her TED talk, “Your body language may shape who you are” (2012)

Previous Replications Smith et al (2014) – implemented poses in a competitive environment where people called winner s and losers in public. Ranehill et al (2015) – used a risk experiment to measure power, confidence and testosterone levels; participants held pose for longer Garrison et al (2016) – added eye gaze as another manipulation to emphasize power, followed by an ultimatum game -Smith and Aciapella: wanted to test in a social context because your hormone levels are often affected in social situations; found no causal effect of testosterone levels increasing and greater success in competition -Ranehill: with very small changes to methodology (instructions given via a computer, minimized participant researcher interaction) -Garrison et al: none of their predicted effects of improved performance or feelings of power; actually reduced feelings of power

Research Question & Hypotheses If subjects perform a power pose for a period of time will they exhibit higher confidence than control subjects in a competition experiment? Null hypothesis: There would be no difference between outcomes of the those who performs the power pose and those who does not. Alternative hypothesis: The performance of the power pose will make the subjects more willing to compete in the experiment. -discuss predictions of experiment

Experimental Design Students were randomly assigned to perform a Power Pose for 2 minutes or stand in the hallway doing nothing for 2 minutes All students were given the opportunity to win extra credit points for their class by completing a math quiz. There were three rounds of the game, where each round had a different point award structure and the payout round was determined at the end by a random drawing by the professor.

Balance Check 39% of sample is in afternoon classes 61% in the morning

Experimental Design Round 1: “Piece rate” Students received 1 extra credit point per correct answer Round 2: “Tournament” Students were randomly and anonymously paired with an “opponent” and the student with the most correct answers received 2 points per correct answer and their opponent would receive 0 points Round 3: “Tournament or Piece rate?” Students were asked to choose before starting the quiz if they wanted to be paid by Piece rate or Tournament. The choice in Round 3 is not meant to measure your desire to compete against your classmates, it is designed to measure your pure competitive spirit rather than targeted competitiveness. Your performance in Round 3 is measured against the score of your random opponent in Round 2, and your payout is determined by how well you did compared to the Round 2 score.

Results -with just treatment and with controls -what other factors from the endline survey questions or demographic variables could be influencing

Results Graph of Gendered Results.

Discussion & Conclusion We show that in the context of extra credit, performing a power pose has basically no effect on your willingness to compete. Gender is show to have a small and somewhat significant effect on the desire to compete which corroborates previous research on gendered competition rates. Placebo effect!!!!!!!! -Found no effect -Further research: gendered incentives because of gender having statistical impact (Cassar et al); -Satiation effect of using extra credit as an incentive