'Confirming the Power of Power Posing'
(AsPredicted #8821)


Author(s)
Spencer Greenberg (NYU) - spencer@clearerthinking.org
Pre-registered on
03/04/2018 09:37 AM (PT)

1) Have any data been collected for this study already?
No, no data have been collected for this study yet.

2) What's the main question being asked or hypothesis being tested in this study?
We are testing whether certain standing power poses (when held for one minute) cause an increase in how good people feel. We will test this by randomly assigning participants to assume certain body postures.

3) Describe the key dependent variable(s) specifying how they will be measured.
The key dependent variable is how much change there is in "good feeling". Good feeling is operationalized by summing together responses on 8 questions each measured on a 7 point, -3 (Totally disagree) to +3 (Totally agree) scale to produce a "good feeling" score (measured once before the intervention, and once after). The change in this total score is the primary dependent variable. The eight statements for which responses are summed to form the "good feeling" score are: "I feel powerful right now", "I feel confident right now", "I feel good right now", "I feel bad right now" (reversed), "I feel anxious or worried right now" (reversed), "I feel down, depressed or hopeless right now" (reversed), "I feel happy right now", "I feel unhappy right now" (reversed).

4) How many and which conditions will participants be assigned to?
There are 5 conditions:
POWERLESS POSE : (1) crumpled - this is a closed / contracted standing posture (the opposite of a power pose)
CONTROL
(2) no pose standing control - participants are asked to stand but not to assume any particular standing posture
(3) no pose sitting control - participants are asked to sit but not to assume any particular sitting posture
POWER POSE
(4) strong person - this power pose involves a wide stance with arms out to the sides, hands in fists, fists pointing straight up in the air, chin up
(5) akimbo hands on hips - this power pose involves a wide stance with hands on hips, elbows pointed to the sides, chin up

5) Specify exactly which analyses you will conduct to examine the main question/hypothesis.
Hypothesis 1: We will use a t-test to test that the POWER POSE participants (i.e. participants assigned to EITHER of the two power pose groups) have a larger (more positive) change in good feeling than those in the CONTROL group (i.e. participants assigned to EITHER of the two controls).
Hypothesis 2: We will use a t-test to test that the POWER POSE participants (i.e. participants assigned to EITHER of the two power pose groups) have a larger change in good feeling than those in the POWERLESS POSE group (i.e. participants assigned to do the "crumpled" posture).
Hypothesis 3: We will use two t-tests to test that BOTH the "strong person" group and the "akimbo hands on hips" group have a larger change in good feeling than those in CONTROL.

We will also conduct a number of secondary analyses, including:
• a t-test to confirm if the CONTROL group had a greater change in good feeling than the "crumpled" group
• a t-test to confirm if the "no pose standing control" had a greater change in good feeling than the "no pose sitting control"
• a t-test to check if those in the POWER POSE group who claim they believed (before enrolling in the study) that posture effects mood had a greater change in good feeling than those who claim they did not believe it
• a t-test to check if we can include that either of the two power pose groups had a stronger effect than the other
• an effect size analysis of how the 8 components of "good feeling" were each individually effected in the POWER POSE group relative to the CONTROL
•Other exploratory analyses that we come up with after examining the data.

6) Describe exactly how outliers will be defined and handled, and your precise rule(s) for excluding observations.
Participants who did not finish the study will be removed from analysis. Furthermore, participants who say they did not follow the instructions exactly as given to them will be removed. Otherwise all data will be included.

7) How many observations will be collected or what will determine sample size?
No need to justify decision, but be precise about exactly how the number will be determined.

We will collect our sample using TaskRecruiter.com and by posting on a personal Facebook account asking people to enroll. We will stop recruiting once we have enrolled 1000 study participants (but the final number may be a little bigger than this since we will still allow people to enroll for an hour after recruitment has stopped).

8) Anything else you would like to pre-register?
(e.g., secondary analyses, variables collected for exploratory purposes, unusual analyses planned?)



Version of AsPredicted Questions: 2.00