Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,04 May 2026,13 mins

Giant Anteaters and Power Posing

Naturebang

Available for over a year

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the animal world to question why we "power pose". Anteaters are masters of it. When feeling threatened, they rear up on their hind legs and extend their arms out wide to show off their huge claws. It is a posture that is designed to make them look more intimidating to predators or competing rivals. Does it work like this for us? If we take up more space in a power pose, are we perceived to be more powerful in the eyes of others? Featuring Arnaud Desbiez, president and founder of ICAS (The Wild Animal Conservation Institute), and Dr Daniel Gurney, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.

Programme Website
More episodes