A Tale of Two Quotes: When Power “Corrupts” and When It Triggers “Great Responsibility”

Abstract

Two seemingly contradictory quotes can be cited in the power literature. The first – and most traditionally held assumption by early power scholars – is attributed to the 19th century British politician Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The other has more ambiguous roots (French Revolution, Voltaire, Churchill, Roosevelt, Uncle Ben Parker, etc.): “With great power comes great responsibility.” Though the notion that power corrupts seems to be the status quo, there are instances when individuals use their power for good. This begs the questions, why and when does power corrupt and why and when does it trigger great responsibility? To answer these questions, I draw from theorizing on cognitive morality (e.g., Kohlberg, 1976) and attribution theorizing (e.g., Heider, 1958) to argue that peoples’ reactions to having power – specifically self-/other-focused behaviors – depends on power attribution. Furthermore, I suggest that peoples’ reactions to power can be explained by where they direct their sense of responsibility – towards themselves (resulting in self-interested behaviors) or towards others (resulting in more other-interested behaviors). Moreover, behaviors directed towards others can be further understood by distinguishing the target (e.g., prosocial behaviors towards a specific individual or individuals vs. prosocial behavior towards the community or society at large). Using a multi-time period study design and structural equation modeling, I demonstrate that when powerholders attribute their power internally, they tend to participate in more self-interested work behaviors, but when they attribute their power externally, they tend to participate in more global prosocial behaviors.