Amy Cuddy

Amy Cuddy
Amy J.C. Cuddy. Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva
Born	1972 (age 42–43)
Nationality	American
Institutions	Rutgers University Kellogg School of Management Harvard Business School
Alma mater	University of Colorado Princeton University
Thesis	The bias map: behavior from intergroup affect and stereotypes (2005)
Doctoral advisor	Susan Fiske
Website people.hbs.edu/acuddy

Amy Joy Casselberry Cuddy (born 1972) is an American social psychologist known for her research on stereotyping and discrimination, emotions, power, nonverbal behavior, and the effects of social stimuli on hormone levels. She is Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School.^[1] Her TEDTalk, delivered at TEDGlobal 2012 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and posted in October 2012, has been viewed more than 21 million times and ranks #2 among the most-viewed TEDTalks.^[2][3]

Cuddy studies the origins and outcomes of how people judge and influence each other. She has conducted experimental and correlational research on stereotyping and discrimination against various groups (e.g., Asian Americans, elderly people, Latinos, working mothers), the causes and consequences of feeling ambivalent emotions (e.g., envy and pity), nonverbal behavior and communication, and hormonal responses to social stimuli. Amy Cuddy was listed #1 in Time Magazine's list of "Game Changers, ...innovators and problem-solvers that are inspiring change in America".^[4]

She often speaks on the psychology of power, influence, nonverbal communication, and prejudice.^[5][6][7]

Career

Cuddy holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Princeton University, an MA in Social Psychology from Princeton University and a BA in Social Psychology from the University of Colorado.

Prior to joining Harvard Business School, Professor Cuddy was an Assistant Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University,^[8] where she taught leadership in organizations in the MBA program and research methods in the doctoral program; and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, where she taught undergraduate social psychology. At Harvard Business School, she has taught MBA courses on negotiation, and power and influence, and in numerous executive education programs.

Research

Along with Susan Fiske and Peter Glick (Lawrence University), Cuddy developed the Stereotype Content Model (SCM)^[9] and the Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes (BIAS) Map,^[10] which is used to make judgments of other people and groups within two core trait dimensions, warmth and competence, and to discern how these judgments shape and motivate our social emotions, intentions, and behaviors.^[11] This work has been cited over 9000 times.

Cuddy’s research with Dana Carney^[12] (UC-Berkeley) focuses on how nonverbal expressions of power (i.e., expansive, open, space-occupying postures)^[13] affect people’s feelings, behaviors, and hormone levels.^[14] In particular, their research shows that “faking” body postures associated with dominance and power (“power posing”)^[15][16]  – even for as little as two minutes — increases people’s testosterone, decreases their cortisol, increases their appetite for risk, and causes them to perform better in job interviews.^[17] In short, as David Brooks summarized the findings, “If you act powerfully, you will begin to think powerfully.”^[18]

Her research has been published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Psychological Science, Research in Organizational Behavior, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, and Science.

Awards and honors

• TEDGlobal Speaker, 2012^[19]
• TIME magazine ‘Game Changer’, 2012^[20]
• PopTech Annual Conference, 'Talk of the Day' October 21, 2011^[21]
• Rising Star Award, Association for Psychological Science (APS), 2011^[22]
• Psychology Today, The Top 10 Psychology Studies of 2010 (Carney, Cuddy, & Yap, 2010)
• Cover story, Harvard Magazine, Nov-Dec, 2010
• The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2009, Harvard Business Review^[23]
• Michele Alexander Early Career Award, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
• Distinguished Alumni Award, Conrad Weiser High School, Robesonia, PA

Personal life

Amy Cuddy grew up in a very small Pennsylvania Dutch town, Robesonia, Pennsylvania. She is a classically trained ballet dancer and worked as a roller-skating waitress when she was an undergraduate at the University of Colorado at Boulder. When she was a sophomore in college she sustained a serious head injury in a car accident.^{[24][25][26][27]} Her doctors told her she was not likely to fully recover and should anticipate significant challenges finishing her undergraduate degree. Her IQ fell temporarily by two standard deviations.^[28][29] She eventually completed her undergraduate studies and went on to earn a PhD at Princeton. Cuddy has often tweeted of her love for live music, and spent a number of seasons following the Grateful Dead. She has one son. In August 2014, in Aspen, Colorado, Amy married Paul Coster.

References

External links

• Cuddy, A. J. C., Glick, P., & Beninger, A. (2011). The dynamics of warmth and competence judgments, and their outcomes in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 31, 73-98.
• Carney, D., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Yap, A. (2010). Power posing: Brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance. Psychological Science, 21, 1363-1368
• Cuddy, A. J. C., Fiske, S. T., & Glick, P. (2008). Warmth and competence as universal dimensions of social perception: The Stereotype Content Model and the BIAS Map. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (vol. 40, pp. 61–149). New York, NY: Academic Press.
• Cuddy, A. J. C., Fiske, S. T., & Glick, P. (2007). The BIAS Map: Behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 631-648.
• Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Glick, P. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth, then competence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 77-83.
• Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 878-902

Media:

• Amy Cuddy at TED
  • TED Talk: Amy Cuddy: "Your body language shapes who you are" (TED Global, June 2012), about the effect of peoples' body language on their perception of how powerful they themselves are. (same video on YouTube)
• Amy Cuddy is interviewed by Anderson Cooper, host of AC360 about body language and the 2012 United States Presidential Debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.