1. Strike a power pose.
According to Harvard social psychologist Amy Cuddy, our attitudes often follow from our behavior. So adopting the body language of powerful people can make you feel powerful, too.
Cuddy has come up with a series of "power poses" designed to increase your confidence. For example, the "Wonder Woman" involves standing with your feet apart, hands on hips, and chin tilted upward. The "Obama" (our name) involves resting your feet on the desk and placing your hands behind your head.
In a 2010 study, Cuddy and colleagues directed a group of students to display high-power poses and others to display low-power poses, like standing with their legs crossed and their arms wrapped around their body. The researchers found that the students who displayed high-power poses were more likely to take risks and showed increased levels of testosterone, a hormone associated with feelings of dominance.
2. Listen to heavy-bass music.
If you don't already have a playlist that gets you pumped before a job interview, you might want to start making one now.
2014 research led by Northwestern professor Dennis Y. Hsu found that undergraduates who listened to clips of "high-power" songs, including Queen's "We Will Rock You," 2 Unlimited's "Get Ready for This," and 50 Cent's "In Da Club," acted as though they felt more powerful than those who listened to clips of low-power songs.
In one experiment, for example, the students who'd listened to high-power songs were more likely to volunteer to go first in a debate immediately after.
In a subsequent experiment, the researchers determined that it was the bass level that produced feelings of power: Students who listened to heavy-bass music pieces reported feeling more powerful than students who listened to those same music pieces with the bass level lowered.
3. Dress up.
Workplace attire is getting increasingly casual, but there may be benefits to going the formal route.
A study undertaken by Columbia University and California State University professors published earlier this year found that undergraduates who wore clothing they would wear to a job interview exhibited enhanced abstract processing. That means they had an easier time thinking broadly instead of getting caught up in details.
When the researchers controlled for feelings of power, those differences in abstract processing all but disappeared. The researchers concluded that wearing formal clothing makes people feel powerful, which in turn changes the way they think.
4. Speak in a lower pitch.
Fascinating research published in 2011 that was led by a professor from Tilburg University in the Netherlands found that lowering the pitch of your voice can make you feel more powerful.
Undergrad students were directed to read text aloud in a higher or lower pitch than normal, or to read the text silently to themselves. Then they filled out surveys in which they picked out which adjectives that best described them from pairs like "submissive-dominant" and "passive-active."
Results showed that students who spoke in a lower pitch than usual were more likely to choose adjectives related to power, such as "submissive" and "active." These feelings of power were presumably subconscious, as none of the students reported knowing what the experiment was about.
5. Spritz on a scent.
Simply knowing that you're wearing a new fragrance can make you act more confident, and even make you seem more attractive to other people.
In a 2009 study published in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, researchers gave one group of male undergraduates a scented spray and another group an unscented spray. Over the next few days, the men who used the scented spray reported higher self-confidence.
The strange part? When a group of women were shown silent videos of the men, they found those who were wearing fragrance more attractive, even though they obviously couldn't smell them. The researchers determined that the men using the scented spray displayed more confident behavior, which in turn made them more attractive.
6. Perform a personal ritual.
Maybe you've got a lucky pair of underwear or maybe you visit the same coffee shop before every big job interview.
Don't feel silly: Research suggests that rituals can decrease anxiety and increase confidence before high-pressure events.
In one 2010 experiment at the University of Cologne, for example, researchers recruited a group of university students to perform a memory task. Half were asked to bring a lucky charm to the experiment and half weren't. Results showed that students who brought their lucky charm performed better on the memory task, and that they reported feeling more confident in their abilities.
7. Write about a time you felt powerful.
Research suggests that simply thinking about having power can change the way you behave.
In a 2013 study, researchers from New York University and Columbia divided undergraduates into groups of three. One-third of the participants were asked to recall and describe a time when they had power over other people; another third described a time when someone else held power over them; the rest described a recent trip to the grocery store.
The groups were filmed while working together to decide which items they'd need to survive a snowstorm. Afterward, they filled out surveys in which they indicated which group member had the highest status and influence. Two days later, the groups worked together on another task and filled out the same surveys.
Turns out, the participants who'd written about a time they felt powerful were ranked as higher-status, more influential, and more leader-like on both sets of surveys.
