The Boss is Paying Attention: Power Affects the Functioning of the Attentional Networks

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to explore the effects of social power on basic attentional processing. Two studies were conducted to test whether powerful individuals show a greater capacity for using orienting cues to increase their executive control. In Experiment 1, participants were assigned to a powerful or a powerless role and then performed a task designed to measure three different dimensions of attentional functioning and the interactions between them: executive control, orienting, and alertness. The results showed that powerful participants were less vigilant and made better use of orienting cues that helped them to improve their executive control. Experiment 2 replicated this effect with a mindset priming manipulation of power and showed that differences between groups occurred because power increased the capacity to focus attention on valid cues, reducing interference (instead of increasing the capacity to disengage from invalid cues). The implications of these findings are discussed.

The Effects of Social Power on Goal Content and Goal Striving: A Situated Perspective

“…Confronted with increased demands, powerless individuals are less capable of effective self-regulation, and their judgments and behaviors are guided less by the primary task at hand. These claims are supported by research using basic attentional tasks that require focused attention to a target, and inhibition of irrelevant information (Guinote, 2007b;Smith, Jostmann, Galinsky, & van Dijk, 2008;Willis, Rodríguez-Bailón, & Lupiáñez, 2011).…”

“…(2010) found that illegitimately powerless individuals persist longer in the face of adversity, as compared to both legitimately powerless and control group participants. Second, illegitimately powerless individuals exhibited the same attentional control as the legitimately powerful do (Willis et al., 2011).…”

How Power Affects People: Activating, Wanting, and Goal Seeking

“…Power sparks optimism and confidence ), authentic self-expression (Anderson & Berdahl 2002, Guinote et al 2002, action (Galinsky et al 2003), and disinhibited behavior (Gonzaga et al 2008) while decreasing vigilance (Willis et al 2011) and worries about threats or losses (Inesi 2010, Keltner et al 2003. Power holders and dominant people often experience positive affective states, such as happiness and interest (Anderson & Berdahl 2002, Berdahl & Martorana 2006, Langner & Keltner 2008, Schmid Mast et al 2009).…”

Limits of control: The effects of uncontrollability experiences on the efficiency of attentional control

“…self-regulation) processes (Derryberry, 2002;Posner, 2012;Posner, Rothbart, Sheese, & Tang, 2007). 1 Third, it has been shown that personal experiences related to a sense of powerlessness (understood as lack of control in a social context) impair executive functions such as updating and inhibition (Smith, Jostman, Galinsky, & van Dijk, 2008), decrease the ability to avoid distractors and focus on goalrelevant information (Guinote, 2007), and reduce the efficiency of using spatial orienting cues to improve executive control (Willis, Rodríguez-Bailón, & Lupiáñez, 2011). These results could therefore lead to analogous predictions of detrimental effects of control deprivation on executive attention.…”