Power and Overcoming Obstacles: Implications for Disobedience and Bystander Intervention

Abstract

We suggest that power enables individuals to defy obstacles in their environment and continue to pursue their goals, unfettered by constraints. The first two experiments test whether the powerful defy instructions from authority (Experiment 1) and ignore social constraints against helping in emergencies (Experiment 2). The final two experiments test whether the powerful are aware of obstacles but disregard them or if power blinds its bearers to potential challenges they face. Support for the latter proposition emerges as both experiments show that the powerful are less likely to consider potential obstacles in goal pursuit (Experiment 3), and that even when presented with obstacles, they are less likely to attend to and remember them (Experiment 4).