EXPERIMENTING WITH

POWER
What studies have shown us about the nature of power
Written by Angelina Kraus

The nature of power has always been a question pondered on by most. So, what do we
really know about the nature of power, and what is there still to know? Many studies
have been carried out around the psychology of power and how it affects us as humans.
So, let's uncover what these studies reveal about the true nature of power.

THE LETTER E
One study was carried out by Galinsky and
colleagues included asking subjects to describe an
experience in which they had lots or power or an
experience when they felt powerless. Then they
were asked to draw the letter E on their foreheads.
People that had just recounted feelings of power
were more likely to draw the letter so it would
look backwards from the viewpoint on another
person. They did this because the power caused

SPEEDING?
them not to care about the viewpoint of others
more than their own.

A study was carried out by a group of psychologists

which once again involved subjects in high and low
power conditions. All subjects were asked how they
would judge someone who drove too fast when
running late for an appointment. People in the high-
power group frequently said it was worse when
others committed those crimes than when they sped
themselves. This reveals that the feeling of power
caused people to think that their actions were more
important than others and that everyone else should
obey the rules but they themselves were important
enough to be an exeption.
 CHEATING?
Another study carried out by Galinsky in 2009
involved asking subjects to recall either an
experience of power or powerlessness. The
subjects were then divided into two groups.
The first group was asked to rate the moral
seriousness of misreporting travel expenses at
work. People in this group who had recalled a
powerful experience considered the
misreporting of travel expenses to be a
significantly worse offense. The second group
played a game of dice, where the result of the
dice roll determined the number of lottery
tickets each player would receive, so a higher
roll led to more tickets. However, people that
had recalled a feeling of power had an average
dice score that was 20% above that expected
by random chance, in a game that relied on
random chance, while people that had recalled

IMPACT ON LAW feelings of being powerless only showed slightly

elevated dice results. This suggests that people
with a mindset of power lied about their actual
The psychologist Deborah Gruenfeld performed scores to get some extra tickets.
a study to explore how positions of power
altered reasoning processes. She analysed 1,000
decisions handed down by the United States
Supreme Court between 1953 and 1993. She
found that as justices gained power on the
court, or became part of a majority coalition,
their written opinions tended to become less
complex and refined. They would consider
fewer perspectives and possible outcomes.
Unfortunately, it is those opinions that then
develop into the law of countries that govern
our daily lives.
 NO MORALS?
A study was recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology by Katherine A, Decelles, a
professor of management at the University of Toronto, and her co-authors. DeCelles and her colleagues
put together moral identity scores for the participants by asking them to rate how important to them
some ethically related characteristics were (eg. Caring, compassionate, fair, etc). Then, some of the
participants were asked to write an essay about a time that they felt powerful, while others were asked
just to write about an ordinary day. They were then individually told that they share 500 tickets with all
the other participants. They could take zero to ten tickets each, the more tickets the better chance of
winning a $100 lottery. However, if they took too many tickets, going past an unknown tipping point,
the pot would empty and no one would be able to win the lottery. People who had just written about
an ordinary day took about 6.5 tickets, regardless of their moral-identity score. People who had just
written about a powerful experience, those with low moral identity scores, took about 7.5 tickets. Those
with high moral identity scores took about 5.5 tickets. This shows that people in power, or just people
that feel powerful in the moment, are less likely to think about others and consider what the right thing
morally is to do.

People that have a mindset of power are more

CONCLUSION prepared to lie and ignore morals in order to

benefit themselves. People in power are more
likely to consider fewer outcomes and
In conclusion, research and studies carried out
perspectives when making the laws that
by various psychologists and scientists on
govern countries. Lastly, people with power
power have shown us a great number of things.
are less likely to think about others, consider
They have shown us that power causes people
what is morally right to do or even care about
to care more about their opinions and views
having good ethical characteristics. These
than the views and opinions of others. It can
facts are only part of the many things we can
be seen that people with power think everyone
learn about the nature of power and what it
must obey rules, but they themselves are an
does to people.
exception.