Behaving as though one already possessed a trait is claimed to produce the trait.
The defensible mechanism is self-perception: having acted confidently, one has evidence of one's own confidence and updates accordingly. The mechanism is weak and real. The version that promises physiological or dispositional change from brief postural or behavioural manipulation is the one that collapsed under replication, and the maxim is usually invoked in that stronger sense.
In practice
- A junior who volunteers to chair meetings becomes someone who chairs meetings, over months and by practice.
- A candidate who adopts a posture for two minutes before an interview has adopted a posture.
- Possible explanations
- One explanation is self-perception: having acted confidently, a person has evidence of their own confidence and updates accordingly. Another is social, since others respond to the performance and their response becomes further evidence.
- In its favour
- The modest version has support from self-perception research and from exposure therapy, where acting against fear reliably reduces it.
- Against it
- The strong version, which promised hormonal and physical change, rests on power-posing work that has largely failed to replicate. Behaviour alone does not reliably produce the trait, and sustained pretence can raise strain rather than confidence.
- Standing
- Self-perception theory supports a modest version: people infer their attitudes from their own behaviour. The power-posing literature that revived the strong version has largely failed to replicate.
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Moralists, aphorists and the self-help tradition