Cork students' Wonder Woman pose research attracts interest from Harvard
Liadh Ní Dhonnabháin and Ellie Ní Chadhla, both Transition Year students at Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig, proved that assuming a ‘Wonder Woman-type’ power pose for two minutes — confident stance, taking up space with feet and elbow positioning — builds confidence and helps students keep a cool headin an exam.
Their project was inspired by a TED Talk they heard online given by Harvard-based social psychologist Amy Cuddy. She proved that power-posing for two minutes increased testosterone by 20% and decreased stress hormone cortisol by 25% — that adopting body language associated with power makes you feel more powerful.
Just days after the feature, ‘The power’s in the pose’, appeared in Irish Examiner on February 12, Ms Cuddy emailed them to say how excited and impressed she was by their research.
“She congratulated us and said she’s doing a similar project in the US with younger students. She said she’d love to collaborate with us and maybe publish something together. She also said she’s doing another TED Talk in a month about how her research has spread and impacted throughout the world and she wants to interview us for that,” says Liadh.
“We said we’d love to collaborate with her and to do the interview and she mailed back asking would we be available to skype.”
“I was so amazed,” says Liadh. “Ellie and I never thought it would reach the US. We thought it would be over at the Young Scientist Exhibition. We were just honoured that she took such an interest and that she wants to work with us.”
Ellie says she’s “ecstatic” at Ms Cuddy’s interest. “I couldn’t believe she’d take such an interest in a project done by two ordinary 15-year-old girls.”
Ms Cuddy said she wants to find a way to collaborate with the students — perhaps run some additional studies and submit the paper for publication. “I’m just so inspired by young people who are bold and brave enough to do this sort of thing, and always thrilled to see young women moving into the sciences.”
As for Liadh and Ellie, they see this as just the beginning. “It has got us thinking that maybe this could be a career path we could follow after school,” says Liadh.
