The Body That Lied First

Every self-help book stakes its authority on citations it hopes will still be standing by the time a reader opens it years later. Compelling People bet heavily on Amy Cuddy's power-posing research, and it lost. The book spends pages on the Cuddy-Carney study — two minutes in an expansive stance, a spike in testosterone, a drop in cortisol, a panel of judges rating the posers more "engaging, persuasive, and compelling" — and it calls Dana Carney "our friend," thanks her by name, builds an ent