Abstract
Powerful people often act at will, even if the resulting behavior is inappropriate-hence the famous proverb "power corrupts." Here, we introduce the reverse phenomenon-violating norms signals power. Violating a norm implies that one has the power to act according to one's own volition in spite of situational constraints, which fuels perceptions of power. Four studies support this hypothesis. Individuals who took coffee from another person's can (Study 1), violated rules of bookkeeping (Study 2), dropped cigarette ashes on the floor (Study 3), or put their feet on the table (Study 4) were perceived as more powerful than individuals who did not show such behaviors. The effect was mediated by inferences of volitional capacity, and it replicated across different methods (scenario, film clip, face-to-face interaction), different norm violations, and different indices of power (explicit measures, expected emotions, and approach/inhibition tendencies). Implications for power, morality, and social hierarchy are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 500-507 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Social Psychological and Personality Science |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 22 Aug 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
We thank Adam Lobel and Apostolos Lazaridis for their help with the development of the film clips for Study 3 and Tijmen Grondhout, Henk Petter, and Marrit van Brummelen for assistance with the data collection for Study 4. The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interests with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article. This research was supported by a Vidi research grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO 452-09-010) awarded to the first author.
Keywords
- Norm violation
- Power
- Volition