Confident body language (that is not fake)

Partly. **Amy Cuddy (2012)** originally claimed that expansive postures raise testosterone and lower cortisol, priming you for confidence. **Ranehill et al. (2015)** ran a large pre-registered replication and found no hormonal effect. Cuddy's revised position — supported by the felt-power literature — is that posture shifts _how you feel_, not your hormones. Most people do report feeling more capable after holding a wide, open posture for a minute or two before a high-stakes moment. That subjective shift is real and worth using; the hormone story is not.

Mostly the **absence of anxious signals**: no fidgeting, no crossed arms, no weight shifting, no glancing away mid-sentence. Positively, it looks like a **grounded stance** (feet roughly hip-width, weight evenly distributed), **slow and deliberate movement**, eye contact held long enough to feel intentional, and taking up the space you were offered rather than contracting. **Bert Decker (Communicate to Influence)** calls this 'physical command' — it isn't theatrical; it's the baseline a nervous body abandons.

The research landing zone is roughly **60–70 %** of the conversation — hold contact while speaking, allow a natural break when you're thinking or listening to a specific point, then return. Breaking eye contact _upward_ reads as thinking; breaking it _sideways_ reads as evasive. The most common anxious mistake is looking down too quickly after making a statement, which signals doubt in what you just said. If sustained contact feels uncomfortable, practice by holding it for the length of one complete thought before glancing away.

Yes — it's one of the clearest signals observers use to infer anxiety. **Henk Aarts and colleagues** have documented that small, uncontrolled movements activate threat-detection in observers before any conscious judgment is made. The fix isn't to freeze; it's to _unclench_: let your hands rest open in your lap or at your sides rather than lacing them or touching your face. Stillness reads as composure. Most people over-fidget because they've never noticed they do it — one session on video is usually enough.

Yes, if the forcing is visible. **Decker (Communicate to Influence)** makes the point plainly: audiences are expert at detecting mismatches between what someone says and what their body says. A stiff, performed attempt at confidence — squared shoulders held unnaturally, an exaggerated voice — reads as _trying to look confident_, which triggers distrust faster than ordinary nervousness does. The goal isn't to impersonate a confident person; it's to remove the signals that broadcast anxiety. Those two things look different in practice.

A few minutes of **expansive posture** helps — stand or sit wide and open rather than folded. This won't change your hormones (Ranehill et al., 2015), but it reliably shifts your felt sense of readiness (Cuddy, Presence). Slow, extended exhales activate the parasympathetic system and reduce visible physiological arousal — lower heart rate, less tension in the voice. See our guide on [calming your nervous system](/en/blog/calm-your-nervous-system) for the specific techniques that work fastest before social pressure.

Completely. Confidence signals work as a **system** — a grounded stance paired with a rapid, high-pitched voice produces a confused signal that observers read as anxiety with a physical mask. The critical variables are **pace** (slower than you think you need to go), **volume** (fill the room, don't trail off at sentence ends), and **pitch stability** (avoid upward inflection on declarative statements, which turns them into questions). Our piece on [voice and tone](/en/blog/voice-and-tone) covers these in detail, including the specific exercises that build a steadier vocal presence quickly.

Both, but the signals shift. In presentations, **physical command** — stillness, deliberate movement, taking up space — matters most. In one-on-one conversations, **mirroring** and **facing** matter more: orienting your body directly toward the other person (rather than angled away) and allowing natural mirroring of their posture signals engagement and ease. The overlap is that anxious signals — fidgeting, looking down, contracting — undermine both. Our post on [body language that builds trust](/en/blog/body-language-that-builds-trust) covers the one-on-one read in more depth.

Three steps, two minutes. **First**: find a private space and hold an open, expansive posture for 60–90 seconds — arms uncrossed, chest open, chin level. **Second**: take three slow exhales (twice as long as the inhale) to drop visible physiological arousal. **Third**: identify the one thing you most want the other person to take away, so you enter with intent rather than dread. This is essentially Cuddy's pre-performance recommendation stripped of the hormone claim, which didn't replicate — the _felt_ shift remains well-supported.

Noticeably. Open, grounded, unhurried physical presence signals **psychological safety** — people near you tend to relax because your body isn't broadcasting threat or anxiety. This matters in personal relationships as much as in professional ones: a conversation partner who holds still, faces you, and takes up their space without apologising for it is easier to be honest with. The link between your physical signals and how [readable your body language](/en/blog/how-to-read-body-language) is goes both ways — calibrating your output also sharpens your read of others.