Does power corrupt? The moderating effect of status

Findings on the effect of power on corruption are mixed. To make sense of these mixed results, three studies were conducted to examine the moderating role of status on this effect. In Study 1, corrupt intent was measured using a corruption scenario that contained manipulations of power and status. In Study 2, corrupt behaviour was measured in a corruption game that contained manipulations of power and status. Study 3 was conducted in real organisational settings, and aimed to expand the external validity of Studies 1 and 2. The results of all three studies consistently indicated that the effect of power was moderated by status. Specifically, power increased corruption when status was low, whereas this effect disappeared when status was high. The implications of reducing the facilitating effect of power on corruption by considering status from the perspective of social hierarchy are discussed.     

Who's to blame? The role of power and attributions in susceptibility to match-fixing

ObjectiveOfficial reports and anecdotal evidence suggest that people with power frequently put pressure on athletes to fix a match. Therefore, it is assumed that athletes may attribute their involvement to this pressure. The present study was designed to investigate the role that power, attributions and moral emotions may play in the decision to fix a match.MethodTeam and individual sport athletes (N = 427) competing in five European countries participated in a quasi-experimental vignette design. Participants completed eight vignettes manipulating power, source of attributions and stability of attributions. Match-fixing susceptibility and five discrete anticipated moral emotions (guilt, shame, pride, indifference, anger) were measured.ResultsThe results of the analyses demonstrated that athletes are perceived to be most susceptible to match-fixing when the reason is related to a stable attribute of the individual (e.g., enjoying gambling, having a betting problem). However, participants reported also being susceptible to match-fixing when power is high. Anticipated emotions negatively predicted match-fixing susceptibility and mediated the effect of attributions and power on match-fixing susceptibility.ConclusionThe findings provide information on the interplay between attributions, power and anticipated emotions in predicting match-fixing susceptibility, and the determinants of match-fixing susceptibility. This will be of benefit to policy makers, sporting organizations and researchers in developing policies and interventions to protect athletes from being vulnerable to match-fixing requests.     

Assertive Ads for Want or Should? It Depends on Consumers’ Power

Advertisements using assertive language are commonly seen in marketing communications, yet assertive language has often been shown to be ineffective in communication and even decrease compliance. Recent research began to examine factors that influence the effectiveness of assertive advertising messages, but little research has studied the potential moderating role of consumer‐related factors. The current research fills this gap by investigating the moderating role of consumers’ power. Across five studies, the authors find that for high‐power consumers, assertive ads are effective in promoting want products but ineffective in promoting should products. For low‐power consumers, however, assertive ads are effective in promoting should products but ineffective in promoting want products. Moreover, the authors show that this pattern of results is driven (mediated) by consumers’ perception of the fit between the advertising message and the advertised product. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

La déférence : une norme sociale complémentaire de l’internalité en contexte de promotion professionnelle ?

Regarding evaluation, numerous researches highlighted the social valuation of the internality. From the end of 1990s, the diversification of the studied situations came to put in perspective the impact of this norm, while revealing the existence of others social norms. The present research was designed to investigate the phenomenon of social valuation of the deference in situation of annual performance review. The social valuation of the power of others was examined by two studies: one led from paradigm of autopresentation with employees and other one, conducted under legislator paradigm with Human Resources specialists (students in their final year of Institutes Business Administration). If the results indicate, in a classic way, important normative effects of the internality, the valuation of the deferential explanations is globally so obvious. These results question about the contextual expression of a norm of deference: employees and RH experts give weight to the power of others. The results show a convergent use of the internality and the power of others.     

Bidirectional semantic associations between social power and weight

Two experiments were conducted to examine bidirectional semantic associations between power and weight using a priming paradigm. Bidirectionality in the relationship between power and weight was demonstrated, utilising tasks that were identical except that the orders in which the stimuli were presented were reversed. In Experiment 1, an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a priming stimulus, and a scale that appeared in equilibrium with a pair of power words was used as a target stimulus. In Experiment 2, a scale with a pair of words that appeared in equilibrium was used as a priming stimulus, and an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a target stimulus. We identified interaction effects between power and weight in both experiments. Associations between power and weight provide evidence for both conceptual metaphor views and evolutionary theory. The bidirectionality of metaphorical effects is in line with the strong version of metaphoric structuring. Both language and experiential correlations play important roles in the development of the mapping between power and weight.     

从中国的外交政策看中国对阿拉伯国家的软实力优势

中国与阿拉伯国家之间有着传统的友好合作关系,究其原因,中国的外交政策发挥了不可或缺的重要作用。自20世纪50年代中阿开启外交关系以来,中国始终将自身利益与阿拉伯国家的利益结合起来,政治上大力支持其正义事业,经济上给予其无私援助,文化上主张文明对话、反对文明对抗。中国的外交政策已经成为中国一项重要的软实力优势,不仅得到了阿拉伯国家的广泛认可,更成为推动中阿关系不断发展的动力。     

Moral judgments of the powerless and powerful in violent intergroup conflicts

The present research examined observers' moral judgments of groups in conflict. Study 1 found support for the prediction that actions are interpreted as more moral in the context of low power. People judged the violent actions of a fictitious group as more moral and justifiable when done by a smaller, less powerful country compared to a larger one. However, a second study found that violence may undermine the moral advantage accorded underdog groups. People reading about Israeli construction of settlements in Palestinian territories judged the Israeli actions to be more moral when Palestinians resisted violently compared to when they used non-violent resistance tactics. Together, these studies demonstrate how moral judgments of the actions of groups in conflict are influenced by contextual factors independent of the actions themselves.     

Resources versus respect: Social judgments based on targets' power and status positions

In two experiments, we investigate how individuals' levels of power and status interact to determine how they are perceived by others. We find that power and status have similar, positive, effects on judged dominance. We also find that power has a negative effect on perceived warmth, but status moderates this “power penalty”: high power without status is associated with low warmth, but power with status is judged warm. Consequently, we find high status individuals, regardless of power level, are perceived positively - dominant and warm - whereas high power-low status individuals are judged most negatively — dominant and cold (Experiments 1 and 2). As a result, perceivers expect positive interactions with high status individuals, but negative interactions with high power, low status individuals (Experiment 2). These findings provide insight into power and status social judgments, and further our understanding of similarities and differences between these distinct, yet related, constructs.     

How we Became the Schmams: Conceptualizations of Fairness in the Decision-Making Process for Latina/O Children

The current study examines 16 Latina/o fifth grade children's desires for a decision-making structure within a youth participatory action research (yPAR) program. When given the choices of consensus, majority rule, authoritarian rule, delegation, and random choice models, children chose random choice. Procedural, distributive and emotional justice were heavily weighted in their reasoning around fairness and decision making. Many thought random choice offered the best alternative because it flattened power hierarchies so that each child would, at some point, have the power to make a decision. Additionally, children argued that the neutrality of random choice allowed them to sidestep interpersonal tensions. Implications include how social identities inform definitions of fairness and how yPAR programs should work with youth around how they will make decisions.     

Channeling Power Across Ecological Systems: Social Regularities in Community Organizing

Relational and social network perspectives provide opportunities for more holistic conceptualizations of phenomena of interest in community psychology, including power and empowerment. In this article, we apply these tools to build on multilevel frameworks of empowerment by proposing that networks of relationships between individuals constitute the connective spaces between ecological systems. Drawing on an example of a model for grassroots community organizing practiced by WISDOM—a statewide federation supporting local community organizing initiatives in Wisconsin—we identify social regularities (i.e., relational and temporal patterns) that promote empowerment and the development and exercise of social power through building and altering relational ties. Through an emphasis on listening-focused one-to-one meetings, reflection, and social analysis, WISDOM organizing initiatives construct and reinforce social regularities that develop social power in the organizing initiatives and advance psychological empowerment among participant leaders in organizing. These patterns are established by organizationally driven brokerage and mobilization of interpersonal ties, some of which span ecological systems. Hence, elements of these power-focused social regularities can be conceptualized as cross-system channels through which micro-level empowerment processes feed into macro-level exercise of social recommendations for theory and designpower, and vice versa. We describe examples of these channels in action, and offer of future action research.