Power in mixed-sex stranger interactions |
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| Authors: | Gian C. Gonzaga Dacher Keltner Daniel Ward |
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| Affiliation: | 1. eHarmony Labs , Pasadena, CA, USA;2. University of California , Los Angeles, CA, USA ggonzaga@eharmony.com;4. University of California , Berkeley, CA, USA;5. University of Wisconsin , Madison, WI, USA |
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| Abstract: | The authors tested the approach/inhibition theory of power by examining teasing interactions between women and men in conditions in which either one was given elevated power or they were in an equal-power control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, high-power individuals behaved in a disinhibited fashion and were less accurate judges of their partner's emotion, whereas low-power individuals behaved in a more inhibited, indirect fashion and reported more self-conscious/anxiety-related emotion. Additional contrast analyses revealed only modest support for the claim that men would act in powerful fashion in the absence of explicit power differences, and that power-based differences were greatest when the man had power over the woman. Discussion focuses on different perspectives on the interaction between power and gender. |
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