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TED Talks Daily
TED Talks Daily

How bullying spreads — and how social bravery stops it | Amy Cuddy

September 09, 2026 • 17m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shares her harrowing experience of being targeted by a sustained bullying campaign from academic colleagues after her viral TED Talk on power posing. She explains how bullying differs from conflict, the predictable stages it follows, and most importantly, how collective action through 'social bravery' can stop these patterns. Drawing on eight years of research, she reveals that bullies need audiences to succeed and that refusing participation can render them powerless.

From Viral Success to Targeted Attacks

Amy Cuddy recounts how her 2012 TED Talk on body language and confidence became one of the most viewed talks of all time, which initially opened her world in beautiful ways. However, this success triggered a sustained bullying campaign not from anonymous trolls, but from tenured professors, department chairs, and journal editors who used their real names to attack her relentlessly for years. They falsely claimed her work on power posing had been 'debunked,' though the central finding about posture affecting feelings of power was actually replicated dozens of times across independent studies worldwide.

  • In 2012, Cuddy gave a TED Talk on social psychology that became one of the most viewed of all time
  • She became the target of sustained bullying by colleagues, including tenured professors and journal editors who used their real names
  • Attackers publicly declared she had no serious conception of science and was selling pseudoscience
  • The central finding that expansive vs. contractive posture affects feelings of power was replicated dozens of times, including in a meta-analysis with 88 studies and nearly 10,000 participants
" When I became the target of a sustained bullying campaign. Not by trolls on the internet. I learned to dismiss them quickly but by colleagues by tenured professors department chairs and journal editors who used their names, their real names, to attack me relentlessly for many years. "
" Expansive versus contractive posture affects how powerful or powerless we feel. "

The Devastating Personal Impact

The relentless attacks took a severe toll on Cuddy's life and wellbeing. She couldn't eat or sleep, working constantly to defend herself from nonstop incoming attacks. Two tenured Ivy League professors admitted they would have defended her publicly but were afraid of becoming targets themselves, while friends who privately expressed support wouldn't acknowledge her publicly. The isolation and erasure became so overwhelming that she walked away from Harvard a year before tenure and eventually attempted suicide twice.

  • Two tenured Ivy League professors told the New York Times they would have defended Cuddy publicly but were afraid of becoming targets themselves
  • Friends wrote privately saying 'these guys are horrible' but wouldn't look at her publicly
  • Cuddy couldn't eat or sleep, working constantly to defend herself from relentless attacks
  • She walked away from Harvard a year before going up for tenure because staying meant 'certain death'
  • She attempted to take her own life twice
" And I chose to walk away from my job at Harvard a year before going up for tenure. not because I was forced to but because I knew that staying meant certain death "
" Because this kind of bullying is simultaneously this horrible public spectacle of shame where you're in a spotlight. And at the same time, it's a total erasure of who you are and what you've done. "

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