Posture and Hormones

A study by psychologists at Columbia and Harvard found that changing your posture alters your hormone levels. When measuring hormone levels, research showed that volunteers who took on dominant postures had increased testosterone and lower cortisol levels. In contrast, volunteers who took on low status postures had lower testosterone and increased cortisol levels.

According to the study, "by simply changing physical posture, an individual prepares his or her mental and physiological systems to endure difficult and stressful situations, and perhaps to actually improve confidence and performance in situations such as interviewing for jobs, speaking in public, disagreeing with a boss, or taking potentially profitable risks. These findings suggest that, in some situations requiring power, people have the ability to 'fake it 'til they make it.' "