Seeing power in action: The roles of deliberation, implementation, and action in inferences of power

Magee, Joe C.

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.06.010

Cited by 80 publications

(76 citation statements)

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“…Our results are in line with, and therefore help to further bolster, a behavioral signal approach, which has suggested that behavioral patterns associated with particular positions or personality characteristics may serve as a cue to observers that an individual possesses that position or personality characteristic (e.g., Hall, Coates, & Smith LeBeau, 2005;Magee, 2009;Puts et al, 2006Puts et al, , 2007.…”

Section: Theoretical Implicationssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Converging evidence suggests that when power is associated with a behavioral signal people become sensitive to the signal itself, leading them to infer the presence of power when witnessing the associated behavior (Smith & Galinsky, 2010). For example, Galinsky et al(2003) found that having power is associated with taking action (e.g., being more likely to act on an external stimulus, such as an annoying fan blowing in one's direction); people's sensitivity to this association is highlighted by their corresponding perception of those who take more action as being more powerful (Magee, 2009). Likewise, individuals placed in a powerful Abstract Language Signals Power 4 role tend to lower their voice pitch (Puts, Gaulin, & Verdolini, 2006), and individuals asked to speak with a lower-pitched voice (versus their normal voice) not only feel more powerful (Stel, van Dijk, Smith, van Dijk, & Djalal, 2012), but are also judged by observers as having more power (Puts et al, 2006;Puts, Hodges, Cardenas, & Gaulin, 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using abstract language signals power.

Wakslak¹,

Smith²,

Han³

2014

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Language Signals Power 2 AbstractPower can be gained through appearances: People who exhibit behavioral signals of power are often treated in a way that allows them to actually achieve such power (Ridgeway, Berger, & Smith, 1985;Smith & Galinsky, 2010). In the current paper we examine power signals within interpersonal communication, exploring whether use of concrete versus abstract language is seen as a signal of power. Since power activates abstraction (e.g., Smith & Trope, 2006), perceivers may expect higher-power individuals to speak more abstractly and therefore will infer that speakers who use more abstract language have a higher degree of power. Across a variety of contexts and conversational subjects in six experiments, participants perceived respondents as more powerful when they used more abstract language (versus more concrete language). Abstract language use appears to affect perceived power because it seems to reflect both a willingness to judge and a general style of abstract thinking.Keywords: power, perception, distance, abstraction, social judgment Abstract Language Signals Power 3 Managing other's impressions of one's power is a critical skill. Being seen as powerful can elicit treatment from others that allows one to actually achieve such power (Ridgeway, Berger, & Smith, 1985;Smith & Galinsky, 2010). Having power means having more control over one's own life and therefore is associated with numerous positive outcomes for the individual, including an increased ability to achieve one's goals (e.g., Galinsky, Gruenfeld, & Magee, 2003;Guinote, 2007;Karremans & Smith, 2010) and the goals of one's organization (Overbeck & Park, 2006), increased freedom to express oneself (e.g., Anderson & Berdahl, 2002) and behave in line with one's core values (e.g., Chen, Lee-Chai. & Bargh, 2001;DeCelles, DeRue, Margolis, & Ceranic, 2012), and even an array of positive health outcomes (e.g., Marmot et al., 1991;Sherman et al, 2012). Thus, the possession of power is often a goal in itself. Moreover, individuals who occupy high-power positions but are not perceived as powerful risk their position being viewed as illegitimate . While some behaviors signaling power may be difficult to enact with limited resources (e.g., loaning money, exerting influence, taking action; Goldhamer & Shils, 1939), others may be relatively easy to adopt (e.g., a lower-pitched voice; Carney, ).In the current paper we examine whether a person's use of relatively concrete or abstract language can serve as a subtle but meaningful signal of power, exploring this idea across six studies that manipulate linguistic abstraction in various ways and measure power and leadership inferences. Linguistic Abstraction as a Power CueRecent research on power inferences has increasingly emphasized the subtle ways that people signal their degree of power. Converging evidence suggests that when power is associated with a behavioral signal people become sensitive to the signal itself, leading them to infer the presence of power when witnessing the ass...

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Section: Theoretical Implicationssupporting

confidence: 87%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using abstract language signals power.

Wakslak¹,

Smith²,

Han³

2014

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Though it is often stated that action itself is associated with power (Galinsky et al, 2003;Magee, 2009), and theories such as the Approach/Inhibition Theory of Power focus on how power disinhibits action, this research demonstrates that certain kinds of action, such as approach, may be more powerful than others.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Combining these two lines of research, there appears to be a bidirectional relationship between power and approach behavior, one that can operate without individuals' awareness or intent, similar to the relationship between power and abstract thinking (Smith & Trope, 2006;Smith, Wigboldus, et al, 2008). This relationship not only strengthens the association between power and approach behavior, but also suggests a way hierarchies may be unintentionally maintained, particularly when one adds the finding that (Magee, 2009). A person's sense of power does not merely come from the job title after her name or the size of his office.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Moving Closer to Reach the Top: Approach Behavior Increases One's Sense of Power

Smith

McCulloch²,

Schouwstra³

2013

Social Cognition

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Power holders exhibit more approach behavior than those without power and are even expected by others to do so. We proposed that this strong association between power and approach should make approach behavior a useful cue for perceiving one's level of power: If I am approaching things, I must be powerful. Across three experiments, engaging in approach behavior led individuals to feel explicitly (Exp. 1) and implicitly (Exp. 2) more powerful and to feel better suited for high-power jobs (Exp. 3), without affecting conscious affective experiences.Furthermore, the effect was not dependent on specific physical movements; the same movement was psychologically framed as either approach or avoidance and affected participants' sense of power accordingly (Exp. 1 & 3). Since power itself leads to approach behavior, these results suggest a way power hierarchies may be unintentionally perpetuated or strengthened. In other words, approach behavior is clearly part of the mental representation of power.Previous research convincingly demonstrates that activating the concept of power activates approach behavior. Therefore, our main question is whether activating approach behavior also activates the concept of power. This advances the study of power because as with any mental representation, investigating bidirectionality is a basic way to study process. For example, in the goal literature, goals are mentally represented as a hierarchical structure containing motives, goals, plans, means, and behaviors. Not only do means prime goals, but goals also prime means (Shah & Kruglanski, 2003). Such a bidirectional relationship is functional. For instance, if you forget a particular means to a goal, highlighting that goal helps you remember other associated means (McCulloch, Aarts, Fujita, & Bargh, 2008). More relevant to the present research, Smith, Wigboldus, and Dijksterhuis (2008) found that the relationship between power and abstract thought is bidirectional: having power leads to more abstract thought (Smith & Trope, 2006), and inducing people to think abstractly makes them feel more powerful. Moving Closer to ReachOne cannot assume bidirectionality of relationships. For example, according to a metaphor-enriched perspective on cognition (Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010), people use knowledge about concrete attributes of objects and relations to interpret and evaluate more abstract concepts, but the reverse does not occur. Thus, information about spatial relations influences how people construe temporal relations, but activating information about temporal

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“…Tačiau kiti autoriai pabrėžia, kad ne mažiau svarbus yra derybininko vaidmuo derybų procese (De Dreu 1995;De Dreu, Van Kleef 2004;Magee et al 2007;Magee 2006;Mannix, Neale 1993;Shapiro, Bies 1994) ir įvairūs derybininko elgseną veikiantys veiksniai (Bacharach, Lawler 1981;De Dreu, McCusker 1997;Hornstein 1965;Weingart et al 1996;Makštutis 2011;Foster 2004).…”

Section: Derybų Eigos Etapaiunclassified

Komunikacija ir derybos – esminė tarptautinio verslo plėtotės prielaida

Pipirienė

Maciukevičienė

2011

Business: Theory and Practice

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Seeing power in action: The roles of deliberation, implementation, and action in inferences of power

Cited by 80 publications

References 50 publications

Using abstract language signals power.

Using abstract language signals power.

Moving Closer to Reach the Top: Approach Behavior Increases One's Sense of Power

Komunikacija ir derybos – esminė tarptautinio verslo plėtotės prielaida

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