The secret to exuding confidence? Raise your eyebrows and blink slowly, scientists say

From Barack Obama to Oprah Winfrey, many celebrities exude confidence – even while addressing huge crowds of people. 

Now, scientists believe they've cracked the secret to their success. 

According to researchers from the University of Glasgow, if you want to appear confident, all you need to do is raise your eyebrows and blink slowly. 

In contrast, furrowing your brow and narrowing your eyes will give off the impression that you lack self–assurance, they say. 

'Across cultures, brow raising and eye closure were associated with increased perceived confidence, whereas brow lowering and eye tightening were associated with doubt,' explained Rachael Jack, corresponding author of the study.

'These findings extend previous observational accounts of facial signals in conversation by demonstrating that such movements do not merely accompany speech but actively shape how it is understood.'

In their study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science, the researchers set out to understand if your facial movements influence your perceived confidence. 

'Linguistic markers such as "uhm" and "maybe", as well as phonetic features such as high pitch, rising intonation and slower speech rate, are reliably associated with doubt,' the researchers explained. 

'In contrast, the face has received comparatively little attention in this context, despite observational evidence that speakers routinely display facial movements, such as a puzzled "thinking face" or "facial shrug", when responding to questions.'

To get to the bottom of it, the team enlisted 44 participants – 22 White British native English speakers, and 22 Chinese native Mandarin speakers. 

These participants were shown videos of computer–generated speakers representing the two different cultural backgrounds, answering 'yes' or 'no'.

In each video, the researchers varied the speakers' facial movements around the eyes and eyebrows, while keeping their spoken words and vocal tone consistent. 

After watching each video, the participants were asked to rate how confident their answers appeared. 

The results revealed that, across cultures, brow raising and eye closure were associated with increased perceived confidence.

In contrast, brow lowering and eye tightening signalled doubt. 

Dr Jonas Nölle, lead author of the study, said: 'When interpreting speech, listeners draw on more than just the words and voice. 

'By experimentally manipulating facial signals while holding verbal content constant, our study shows that even when the words and vocal cues remain the same, changing the speaker's facial movements can alter how confident or doubtful their answers appear.' 

The study comes shortly after researchers poured cold water on the theory that adopting a 'power pose' makes you look more confident. 

The wide–legged, chest–out pose – used by Beyoncé, Cristiano Ronaldo and Theresa May – became popular in 2010.

However, in 2019, a US researcher analysed the body of existing research on power posing and found that most studies are poorly designed or found no meaningful effect.

'There has literally never been a study that compared a power pose to a normal pose and found any positive effect for a power pose,' said Professor Marcus Credé of the Iowa State University.

'I find this pretty stunning because of the multi–million–dollar industry that has been built up around power posing.'