The attraction of social power: The influence of construing power as opportunity versus responsibility

Abstract Social power can be construed as opportunity (focusing on the possibility of one's own goal achievement resulting from the control over others' outcomes) or as responsibility (focusing on the implications of one's own actions resulting from the control over others' outcomes). Four experiments tested the impact of different construals of social power on the attraction of power. Due to the salience of the possibility for goal achievement, power construed as opportunity was expected to be more attractive than power construed as responsibility. This effect was predicted to be particularly pronounced among individuals with a strong promotion orientation, because of their focus on gains and achievements. Results supported these predictions and indicate that future research should take different construals of power into account.

[1]  Klaus Jonas,et al.  Give a person power and he or she will show interpersonal sensitivity: the phenomenon and its why and when. , 2009, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  R. Bourhis,et al.  Power and status differentials in minority and majority group relations , 1991 .

[3]  Thomas W. Schubert.  Your highness: vertical positions as perceptual symbols of power. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  J. Sinacore.  Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions , 1993 .

[5]  Effects of power on perceived and objective group variability: evidence that more powerful groups are more variable. , 2002 .

[6]  E. Higgins,et al.  Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles , 1998 .

[7]  C. Judd.  Everyday data analysis in social psychology: Comparisons of linear models. , 2000 .

[8]  E. Higgins,et al.  Beyond pleasure and pain. , 1997, The American psychologist.

[9]  Cameron Anderson,et al.  Power, Approach, and Inhibition , 2003 .

[10]  K. Sassenberg,et al.  When gender fits self-regulatory preferences: The impact of regulatory fit on gender-based ingroup favoritism. , 2013 .

[11]  Marianne Schmid Mast,et al.  Anybody can be a boss but only certain people make good subordinates: behavioral impacts of striving for dominance and dominance aversion. , 2003, Journal of personality.

[12]  Itesh Sachdev,et al.  Social categorization and power differentials in group relations , 1985 .

[13]  K. Sassenberg,et al.  Don't ignore the other half: The impact of ingroup identification on implicit measures of prejudice , 2005 .

[14]  J. Bargh,et al.  Attitudes and Social Cognition Relationship Orientation as a Moderator of the Effects of Social Power , 2022 .

[15]  B. I. Murstein,et al.  The Revised Exchange-Orientation Scale , 1987 .

[16]  Gün R Semin,et al.  Linguistic signatures of regulatory focus: how abstraction fits promotion more than prevention. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  N. Ellemers,et al.  The Impact of Relative Group Status: Affective, Perceptual and Behavioral Consequences , 2008 .

[18]  C. Judd,et al.  Evaluative versus Conceptual Judgments in Automatic Stereotyping and Prejudice , 2001 .

[19]  Arie W. Kruglanski,et al.  Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles, 2nd ed. , 2007 .

[20]  K. Sassenberg,et al.  Interactions do not only tell us when, but can also tell us how: Testing process hypotheses by interaction , 2011 .

[21]  Sharon Shavitt,et al.  Culture and concepts of power. , 2010, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  K. Sassenberg,et al.  The impact of regulatory focus on affective responses to social discrimination , 2007 .

[23]  D. Winter.  The power motive. , 1974 .

[24]  J. R. French,et al.  The bases of social power. , 1959 .

[25]  Jens Förster,et al.  Speed/accuracy decisions in task performance: Built-in trade-off or separate strategic concerns? , 2003 .

[26]  Judith A. Hall,et al.  Wanting to Be Boss and Wanting to Be Subordinate: Effects on Performance Motivation , 2010 .

[27]  D. Winter.  The power motive in women―and men , 1988 .

[28]  Sandra J. Milberg,et al.  Recipient's Mood, Relationship Type, and Helping , 1987 .

[29]  Kai Sassenberg,et al.  Why some groups just feel better: the regulatory fit of group power. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[30]  S. Otten,et al.  Looking through the eyes of the powerful , 2008 .

[31]  Amy Summerville,et al.  Self-Report Measures of Individual Differences in Regulatory Focus: A Cautionary Note. , 2008, Journal of research in personality.

[32]  Christian H. Jordan,et al.  Motivation by positive or negative role models: regulatory focus determines who will best inspire us. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  Joe C. Magee,et al.  Power, Culture, and Action: Considerations in the Expression and Enactment of Power in East Asian and Western Societies , 2006 .

[34]  Sandra J. Milberg,et al.  Recipient's mood, relationship type, and helping. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  Judith A. Hall,et al.  When Is Dominance Related to Smiling? Assigned Dominance, Dominance Preference, Trait Dominance, and Gender as Moderators , 2004 .