Repeatedly adopting power postures does not affect hormonal correlates of dominance and affiliative behavior
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Abstract
Background. Adopting expansive versus constrictive postures related to high versus low levels of social power has been suggested to induce changes in testosterone and cortisol levels, and thereby to mimic hormonal correlates of dominance behavior. However, these findings have been challenged by several non-replications recently. Although there is thus more evidence against than for such posture effects on hormones, the question remains as to whether repeatedly holding postures over time and/or assessing hormonal responses at different time points would yield different outcomes. The current study assesses these methodological characteristics as possible reasons for previous null-findings. By testing effects of repeated but short posture manipulations in a social context while using a cover-story, it further fulfills the conditions previously raised as potentially necessary for the effects to occur.
Methods. 82 male participants repeatedly adopted an expansive or constrictive posture for 2 minutes in between blocks of a task that consisted in categorizing faces based on first impressions. Saliva samples were taken at two different time points in a time window in which hormonal responses to stress, competition and other manipulations are known to be strongest.
Results. Neither testosterone and cortisol levels linked to dominance behaviors, nor progesterone levels related to affiliative tendencies, changed from before to after adopting expansive or constrictive postures. The present results establish that even repeated power posing in a context where social stimuli are task-relevant does not elicit changes in hormone levels.
Cite this as
2018. Repeatedly adopting power postures does not affect hormonal correlates of dominance and affiliative behavior. PeerJ Preprints 6:e27389v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27389v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
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This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Supplemental Information
Results of mixed effects ANOVAs with the full sample.
Posture, Time and Posture*Time effects in ANOVAs conducted on the full sample before exclusion of outliers more than three absolute deviations above the median. η2p: partial eta-squared, η2G: generalized eta-squared.
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Hannah Metzler conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Julie Grèzes conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Human Ethics
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
The experimental protocol was approved by INSERM and licensed by the local research ethics committee (Comité de protection des personnes Ile de France III - Project CO7-28, N° Eudract: 207-A01125-48) and carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
1) Database: Open Science Framework
2) DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/3NRSY
3) URL: https://osf.io/3nrsy/
Funding
This work was supported by Fondation ROGER DE SPOELBERCH, INSERM, the French National Research Agency under Grants ANR-17-EURE-0017 and ANR-10-LABX-0087 IEC and by a doctoral fellowship of the École des Neurosciences de Paris Ile-de-France and the Région Ile-de-France (DIM Cerveau et Pensée) to H.M.. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
