Amy Cuddy
Social Psychologist, Award-Winning Harvard Lecturer, and Bestselling Author
How can we improve our relationships, performance, and wellbeing by harnessing our personal power and taking control of our own thoughts, feelings, and actions?
Dr. Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist, bestselling author, and keynote speaker. Her writing, research, teaching, and speaking focus on presence and performance under stress, the causes and outcomes of feeling powerful vs. powerless, prejudice and stereotyping, nonverbal behavior, the delicate balance of projecting trustworthiness and strength, and most recently, the psychology of bullying, bystanding, and social bravery.
After earning her Ph.D. at Princeton University, she was a professor at Harvard Business School (2008-2017) and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (2006-2008). Throughout her academic career, she’s been honored with some of the highest commendations for both her teaching and her research, including the Excellence in Teaching Award from Harvard University (2018) and the Scientific Impact Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology (2022) for her extensive research on intergroup conflict. She continues to teach as a guest lecturer in Executive Education at Harvard Business School and at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Her 2012 TED Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are,” is the second-most popular of all time, with more than 70 million views. Her NYT bestseller, Presence, described in the NYT Sunday Book Review as “…concrete and inspiring, simple but ambitious - above all, truly powerful,” has sold more than half a million copies and been published in 35 languages. In 2025, she will publish her next book, Bullies, Bystanders, & Bravehearts (HarperCollins), on the psychology of bullying among adults — and how we find the courage and tools to stop it. She’s also an avid roller skater and skier, live-music lover (actually, a devoted Deadhead!), adventuring partner to her husband Paul, and hype mom to her son, Jonah, a guitarist, producer, songwriter, and student at Berklee College of Music. She lives in Venice, California
PERSONAL POWER AND PRESENCE: BRINGING YOUR BOLDEST SELF TO YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES
Some of life’s biggest hurdles call for moments of sincerity and control. Too often, we approach these high-pressure moments with fear, and execute with anxiety. Based on her best-selling book Presence, social psychologist Amy Cuddy shares revolutionary research and personal narratives in this impassioned, engaging and innovative presentation. You will learn simple techniques to complete inner transformation, harness the power of presence and perform at the highest levels of confidence.
MOVING FORWARD IN THE FLUX ERA: FROM FLUX SYNDROME TO FLUX RECOVERY
The pandemic and concurrent economic and cultural shifts have propelled workers and leaders into a new “Flux Era.” This new and ongoing flux has created a stew of conflicting emotions — hope, fear, excitement, dispiritedness, relief, and tension. And although human beings are more resilient than we generally appreciate, this psychological tilt-a-whirl has caused many of us to feel a loss of agency, leading us to make rash decisions. With her extensive background in cutting-edge behavioral science and research, Amy Cuddy offers answers in this groundbreaking and energizing talk on the workforce’s most top-of-mind questions around returning to work, such as:
- How do we approach returning to the office in this new era?
- How do we handle contentious conversations about how to return to work?
- How do we create workplace environments and cultures that are welcoming and inclusive to people working both in-person and virtually?
- And how do we re-empower and reset our employees so that they can thrive in the Flux Era?
Combining her openness and warmth with her deep expertise, Amy delivers this timely speech on how to come to terms with and thrive in these tumultuous times.
IDENTITY AND INTERGROUP CONFLICT: EXPLORING THE ANATOMY OF BIAS IN A DIVIDED WORLD
For more than twenty years, Amy Cuddy has been studying and writing about intergroup bias and the psychological underpinnings of how we judge and treat others.
She breaks down who and why we envy, pity, admire, and hate. Why do we bend over backwards to help some people – while turning a blind eye to the mistreatment of others? Why do we assume some people will be allies and others, predators? And how do those feelings and interactions affect how we see ourselves, and how we feel and behave in the future?
As her primary area of research, Cuddy draws from a deep well of knowledge and science to present a powerful and provocative evidence-based discussion that helps audiences understand how bigotry often plays a starring role in prejudice and workplace mobbing.
Our biases – whether simple or complex – impact the quality of our interactions and our productivity at work, says Cuddy. With potency and warmth, she shares with audiences how to reject and transcend stereotypes that divide and disempower, so that we can band together to categorically reject harassment and bullying at work.
THE SCIENCE AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF BRAVERY
Social media is a rocket fuel for our worst impulses, says Amy Cuddy, exacerbating incivility and bullying among adults both online and offline. But the same psychological mechanisms that elicit bullying – tribalism, the influence of norms, and desire for status – can just as easily be used to decrease bullying and increase bravery. The same human tendencies that are activated for bad, argues Cuddy, can be activated for good.“Now, more than any other time, we have the science – and the stories – to build a brand new program to fight against this menace,” Cuddy says.In this talk, based on her upcoming book, Bullies, Bystanders, and Bravehearts, she covers the staggering psychological, physical, and socio-economic costs of bullying to individuals, organizations, and societies – and the unprecedented and surprising opportunities we have to engage in and lead through social bravery. She compellingly demonstrates that when we understand the psychology of these dynamics, virtually all of us will have the power to be bravehearts, rather than passive bystanders.
A renowned social psychologist, Cuddy shares an acute combination of scientific expertise and first-hand experience, drawing both from her personal journey and the stories of others to communicate important human truths.With urgency and hope, she uncovers the psychological levers that trigger bullying, provides a fascinating and unique lens on its toll, and inspires audiences to galvanize their own bravery so we can all be better together.
People were raving about her for hours! She was great! People were raving about her for hours! She was super easy to work with, arrived early, hung out and really did a killer job!
REAL ESTATE
She received a well-deserved standing ovation. Amy was fantastic. She was great to work with beforehand and her closing keynote was a wonderful message with several ideas our attendees can implement in their school districts. She received a well-deserved standing ovation.
PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION (EDUCATION)
She knocked it out of the park. I wanted to reach out on behalf of all of us at Automotive News to thank Amy Cuddy for a fantastic Automotive News Leading Women Conference. It was an outstanding event, with a sold-out, interested and engaged audience that really enjoyed her presentation. Words that kept popping up in relation to her and her presentation in our survey responses were authentic, sincere, engaging, and real. She knocked it out of the park. And the book signing afterwards was a huge success!
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS (PUBLISHING)
Amy just seems so down to earth and approachable. So powerful to hear personal experiences from someone who is also so well versed in their field, and Amy just seems so down to earth and approachable. Everything she spoke about from imposter syndrome to bullying to being our best most confident version of ourselves resonated in some way.
TECHNOLOGY
Amy's talk left me feeling energized and motivated. Amy was the perfect person for all of us to hear right now. These times have been challenging and her talking points were a good reminder of how we can stay strong and help others stay strong. Amy’s talk left me feeling energized and motivated to be my most authentic self and be present at work while helping others do the same.
TECHNOLOGY
WOW! Memorable, relevant, articulate, energizing. Amy Cuddy was a true inspiration. Amy Cuddy was a true inspiration to our audience and a joy to watch. Her work is interesting and relatable, and her presentation resonated with our attendees.
PHI THETA KAPPA (FRATERNAL/MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION)
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES
Her message is very powerful Amy Cuddy focused on her research of body language and how it changes people’s perceptions of us and also the outcomes that occur in our lives. But most importantly, body positioning can shape the way we see ourselves and how that may impact our confidence levels.
WSUM.ORG TED TALK REVIEW
