March 8, 2007: Adam Galinsky (Northwestern University)

• http://galinsky.socialpsychology.org/

When Do I Act and How Do I think Upon Another: The Effects of Power, Legitimacy, and Culture on Action, Risk taking, Perspective-taking, and Objectification

This talk will draw on a series of papers that explore the psychological effects of power. We first explore whether power is geared towards action, assertive behaviors, and preferences for risk. We next posit that the possession of power alters the way that individuals think about others in two fundamental ways. First, power decreases the tendency to consider the goals and perspectives of others. Second, we suggest that those in power tend to objectify others. That is, power increases the tendency to think about others in instrumental terms, as conduits and facilitators of goal completion. Finally we explore whether legitimacy and culture are critical moderating variables in determining whether power leads to action and egocentric self focus vs. when it results in restraint and perspective-taking. When power is illegitimate, the powerless display more approach. In addition, in more interdependent cultures (e.g., East Asian), where relationships matter over independent achievement, power leads to restraint, responsibility, and other-regarding behavior. These latter findings show that how power is conceived and conceptualized determines its downstream psychological consequences.