Does power magnify the expression of dispositions?

Guinote, A.; Weick, M.; Cai, A.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that power holders act more in line with their dispositions than do people who lack power. Drawing on principles of construct accessibility, we propose that this is the case only when no alternative constructs are activated. In three experiments, we assessed participants’ chronic dispositions and subsequently manipulated participants’ degree of power. Participants then either were or were not primed with alternative (i.e., inaccessible or counterdispositional) constructs. When no alternatives were activated, the responses of power holders—perceptions of other people (Experiment 1), preferences for charitable donations (Experiment 2), and strategies in an economic game (Experiment 3)—were more in line with their chronically accessible constructs than were the responses of low-power participants. However, when alternatives had been activated, power holders’ responses were no longer more congruent with their dispositions than were the responses of low-power participants. We propose a single mechanism according to which power increases reliance on accessible constructs—that is, constructs that easily come to mind—regardless of whether these constructs are chronically or temporarily accessible.

Citation

Guinote, A., Weick, M., & Cai, A. (2012). Does power magnify the expression of dispositions?. Psychological Science, 23(5), 475-482. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611428472

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2011
• Online Publication Date: Mar 19, 2012
• Publication Date: Mar 19, 2012
• Deposit Date: Sep 12, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 19, 2018
• Journal: Psychological Science
• Print ISSN: 0956-7976
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9280
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 475-482
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611428472
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1320397
• Related Public URLs: http://kar.kent.ac.uk/32471/