When you’re refuting misinformation or when you’re trying to counter biased thinking and indoctrination, you normally want people to think carefully and deeply about your reasons. To increase chances of that, avoid occasions when people feel powerful because feelings of power reduce careful thinking and decrease chances that people will be persuaded by strong arguments.
Feelings of Power Tend to Amplify
Psychologists are still trying to untangle various main effects and many side effects that feelings of power produce on people. Yet, research shows, for one, that feelings of power act like an amplifier.
The amplifying effect means that feelings of power automate people’s thinking, for example, by encouraging greater reliance on existing attitudes and stereotypes. It also drives people into action.
A 2001 study by Serena Chen, Annette Lee-Chai, and John Bargh found, for example, that people with charitable and pro-social bent are more likely to translate their unselfish and altruistic motivations into action when they feel powerful.
Conversely, it might not be a great idea to make Machiavellians or the dark triad folks feel more powerful, as it will also amplify all of their dark tendencies.
Feelings of Power and Persuasion
Since feelings of power operate like an amplifier, they increase people’s confidence in their existing attitudes. So feelings of power make it more difficult to change people’s minds. This is, of course, bad news if their attitudes are erroneous or prejudiced.
Powerful people also process information less carefully and systematically, so they automate their judgments. This is good news if you want people to make fast, heuristic decisions. But this is bad news if you want them to think carefully and analytically.
Research on How Power Affects Persuasion
A 2007 study by Pablo Brinol, Richard Petty and their colleagues, tested how power would affect persuadability.
Some of their participants were primed with high-power: they engaged in a role-playing exercise where they played a manager. The manager was told that he or she completely controlled the work process, could freely evaluate the subordinates, and allocate the rewards. The manager also got to sit in a taller and better-looking chair than the subordinate.
People in the low-power condition played the subordinates. They were told they had no control over how the work was done, over the evaluation, or the division of resources.
All the participants then had to evaluate an ad for a new cell phone. Compared with low-power participants, high-power participants were much less swayed by the ad with strong arguments. This shows that the low-power people thought about the reasons more carefully, and high-power participants used heuristic assessment.
Practical Takeaway
The main takeaway here is to avoid occasions when people feel powerful if you want them to consider your ideas more carefully and systematically or whenever you’re trying to change their biased beliefs or indoctrinated viewpoints.
However, if people already have accurate viewpoints and you simply want them to act on those views, then they are more likely to do so when they feel powerful.
References
- Serena S. Chen, Annette Y. Lee-Chai, and John A. Bargh. “Relationship Orientation as Moderator of the Effects of Social Power.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 80, 183-187 (2001).
- Pablo Brinol, Richard E. Petty, Carmen Valle, Derek D. Rucker, Alberto Becerra. “The Effects of Message Recipients’ Power Before and After Persuasion: A Self-Validation Analysis.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 93, 1040–1053 (2007).