Prophecies of power: Motivational implications of social power for behavioral confirmation.

Abstract

The effects of relative social power on social motivation and behavioral confirmation were assessed. Participants, randomly assigned to the roles of perceiver and target, conversed over an intercom system as a prelude to choosing partners for an ostensibly subsequent reward-laden game. Relative power was manipulated by giving 1 participant the power to choose a partner for the game. Also, perceivers received a game-related target expectation. Participants' motives and trait-based impression of their partners were assessed. High-power participants were more concerned with learning about their partners than low-power participants, who were generally more concerned with facilitating favorable interaction outcomes. Furthermore, whereas high-power perceivers effected behavioral confirmation from their targets, low-power perceivers did not