Taming the Lion: How Perceived Worth Buffers the Detrimental Influence of Power on Aggression and Conflict.

Mario Weick,Milica Vasiljevic,Constantine Sedikides

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00858

Mario Weick, Milica Vasiljevic + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00858

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Abstract

Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is little empirical evidence that elevated power, by default, fuels conflict and aggression. Instead, previous studies have shown that extraneous factors that decrease powerholders’ perceived worth, making powerholders feel inferior or disrespected, seem to be necessary to ‘unleash’ power’s dark side and trigger aggression and conflict. However, this past work has largely neglected that power boosts individuals’ perceptions of worth, and as such these variables are not independent. The present research sought to address this oversight, thereby providing a more nuanced account of how perceived worth stifles aggression and conflict tendencies in powerholders. Focusing on self-esteem (Study 1) and status (Study 2) as two interrelated facets of perceived worth, we report primary and secondary data indicating that perceived worth acts as buffer and counters aggression as well as more general conflict tendencies in powerholders. By providing evidence for a suppression effect, the present findings go beyond the moderations identified in prior work and demonstrate that perceptions of worth are critical to understanding the link between power on the one hand, and aggression and conflict on the other. We conclude by discussing the social regulatory function of perceived worth in hierarchical relations.

Highlights

Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure.– Betrand Russell, Nobel Lecture, 1950The notion that power transforms people into fiends is pervasive and a unifying theme in Plato’s Republic, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Machiavelli’s The Prince
In our empirical work reported below, we focus on the benefits of perceived worth for stifling aggression/conflict tendencies, leaving it for future research to address factors that mediate the destructive effects of social power
Power was positively related to self-esteem, B = 0.29 [0.15, 0.42], SE = 0.07, t(98) = 4.16, p < 0.001, r = 0.39 [0.21, 0.54], and self-esteem was negatively related to aggression, B = −0.34 [−0.52, −0.17], SE = 0.09, t(98) = −3.86, p < 0.001, r = −0.36 [−0.52, −0.18]

Summary

Introduction

Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure.– Betrand Russell, Nobel Lecture, 1950The notion that power transforms people into fiends is pervasive and a unifying theme in Plato’s Republic, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Machiavelli’s The Prince. The image of malevolent and coercive power-figures resonates with Kipnis’s early studies on the corrupting effects of power and Zimbardo and colleagues’ prison experiment (Haney et al, 1973; Kipnis, 1976). Sociological studies show that conflicts are often less, rather than more, common among rich and wealthy individuals as well as communities (Williams, 1984; Sampson et al, 1997; Browne et al, 1999). Contrary to Lord Acton’s famous assertion that absolute power corrupts absolutely, high levels of incidental power can sometimes prevent abuse (Sachdev and Bourhis, 1985) and reduce, Power, Aggression and Conflict rather than increase, vengeance in persons who are accustomed to power (Strelan et al, 2014). The present article seeks to clarify the vagarious relation between power on the one hand, and aggression/conflict on the other. We argue that the key to understanding this relation lies in the role of powerholders’ perceived worth, that is, the extent to which powerholders feel liked and respected in their own eyes (self-esteem) and in the eyes of others (status)

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