Power drunk feel bigger, taller

People who feel powerful tend to overestimate their own stature, feeling larger than they are.

People who feel powerful tend to overestimate their own stature, feeling larger than they are.

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“Maybe there’s a physical experience that goes along with being powerful,” says Jack A Goncalo of Cornell University, who co-wrote the paper with Michelle M Duguid of Washington University. “For people who are less powerful, maybe other people and objects loom larger, and for the powerful everything else just seems smaller,” Psychologi­cal Science reports.

Plenty of research has shown that taller people are more likely to acquire power; taller people make more money, on average, and are more likely to be promoted. But the study is the first to show that power also makes people feel taller.