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Power, Stability of Power, and Creativity
Abstract
Power hierarchies are an essential aspect of social organization, create stability and social order, and provide individuals with incentives to climb the hierarchical ladder. Extending previous work on power and creativity, we put forward that this relationship critically depends on both the stability of the power hierarchy and the relevance of creative efforts to power. Across three experiments, we show that when power positions are unstable, low power individuals are more flexible thinkers, are less avoidant and process information more globally. Consequently, they achieve more creative insights, especially when being creative is relevant to power. As such, when the power hierarchy is unstable, those lacking power hold the power to creativity.
... 2 tion of power) had an influence on creative divergent thinking (Friedman, Fishbach, Förster, & Werth, 2003;Galinsky, Magee, Gruenfeld, Whitson, & Liljenquist, 2008;Gervais, Guinote, Allen, & Slabu, 2013;Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011). Recently, researchers have started to examine whether the influence on divergent thinking of briefly holding an expansive posture could be similar to recalling or being primed by a power situation (Andolfi et al., 2017;Hao et al., 2017). ...
... Based on these previous studies, a strong sense of power induced by expansive postures should lead individuals to adopt a holistic mode of information processing, leading to greater creative performance on tasks that do not have a right or wrong answer-in other words, requiring divergent thinking. Conversely, as individuals with a weak sense of power have better insight performance (Sligte et al., 2011), contractive postures should lead to more creative performance on tasks requiring convergent thinking, such as insight problems (e.g., Dow & Mayer, 2004;Metcalfe & Wiebe, 1987;Schooler & Melcher, 1995). In other words, the weak sense of power induced by contractive postures should lead individuals to have a narrow attentional focus (P. ...
... Thus, participants who had been placed momentarily in contractive postures (presumed to create a weak feeling of power) performed better in creativity tasks requiring convergent thinking. These findings are consistent with research using different experimental procedures to induce a feeling of power (e.g., Galinsky et al., 2008;Sligte et al., 2011;P. K. Smith & Trope, 2006). ...
Can an individual’s body posture (expansive or contractive) affect their creative thinking (divergent or convergent)? Based on embodied cognition and the debate about the impact of nonverbal physical postures expressing power on psychological and behavioral outcomes, five experiments were conducted. We tested the prediction that expansive postures would have a positive effect on creativity tasks that have no right or wrong answer or optimal solution (divergent thinking), whereas contractive postures would have a positive effect on tasks with a right answer or an optimal solution (convergent thinking). As predicted, results revealed a positive effect of expansive postures on performance of creativity tasks requiring divergent thinking, such as producing original ideas (Study 1) or objects, either by combining shapes to create an original toy (Study 2) or by combining fragments to produce an original drawing (Study 3). Conversely, a positive effect of contractive postures was found on performance of insight tasks requiring convergent thinking, in which participants had to associate elements to discover a unifying and correct solution (Study 4) or overcome initial task constraints to find an optimal solution to a problem (Study 5). These findings open up new avenues for research in embodied creativity.
... This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. tion of power) had an influence on creative divergent thinking (Friedman, Fishbach, Förster, & Werth, 2003;Galinsky, Magee, Gruenfeld, Whitson, & Liljenquist, 2008;Gervais, Guinote, Allen, & Slabu, 2013;Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011). Recently, researchers have started to examine whether the influence on divergent thinking of briefly holding an expansive posture could be similar to recalling or being primed by a power situation (Andolfi et al., 2017;Hao et al., 2017). ...
... Based on these previous studies, a strong sense of power induced by expansive postures should lead individuals to adopt a holistic mode of information processing, leading to greater creative performance on tasks that do not have a right or wrong answer-in other words, requiring divergent thinking. Conversely, as individuals with a weak sense of power have better insight performance (Sligte et al., 2011), contractive postures should lead to more creative performance on tasks requiring convergent thinking, such as insight problems (e.g., Dow & Mayer, 2004;Metcalfe & Wiebe, 1987;Schooler & Melcher, 1995). In other words, the weak sense of power induced by contractive postures should lead individuals to have a narrow attentional focus (P. ...
... Thus, participants who had been placed momentarily in contractive postures (presumed to create a weak feeling of power) performed better in creativity tasks requiring convergent thinking. These findings are consistent with research using different experimental procedures to induce a feeling of power (e.g., Galinsky et al., 2008;Sligte et al., 2011;P. K. Smith & Trope, 2006). ...
Can an individual’s body posture (expansive or contractive) affect their creative thinking (divergent or convergent)? Based on embodied cognition and the debate about the impact of nonverbal physical postures expressing power on psychological and behavioral outcomes, five experiments were conducted. We tested the prediction that expansive postures would have a positive effect on creativity tasks that have no right or wrong answer or optimal solution (divergent thinking), whereas contractive postures would have a positive effect on tasks with a right answer or an optimal solution (convergent thinking). As predicted, results revealed a positive effect of expansive postures on performance of creativity tasks requiring divergent thinking, such as producing original ideas (Study 1) or objects, either by combining shapes to create an original toy (Study 2) or by combining fragments to produce an original drawing (Study 3). Conversely, a positive effect of contractive postures was found on performance of insight tasks requiring convergent thinking, in which participants had to associate elements to discover a unifying and correct solution (Study 4) or overcome initial task constraints to find an optimal solution to a problem (Study 5). These findings open up new avenues for research in embodied creativity.
... In fact, nonautonomous individuals appear to generate ideas rated as radically creative as long as extrinsic rewards are high (Gilson et al., 2012). Similarly, lacking power appears to motivate individuals to come up with ideas if they can use those ideas to gain influence (Sligte et al., 2011). ...
... peers might generally be more supportive than supervisors of path breaking ideas if those ideas can only be realized in the longer run-or if those ideas have the potential to disturb the current power balance in their favour (Sligte et al., 2011). Supervisors, on the other hand, may prefer ideas for incremental improvements that lead to shortterm efficiency gains without invoking unfavourable shifts in the current power balance. ...
Purposefully fostering creativity and innovation through stimulating proactivity requires grappling with an apparent trade‐off. On the one hand, organization members need some autonomy to initiate change. On the other hand, managers might want to steer initiatives and retain control over outcomes. The current paper advances recent work on how proactivity is enacted as a compromise between autonomy and control by studying the process through which bottom‐up ideas are shared in highly hierarchical organizations. Based on an abductive analysis of data from informants in 42 organizations, we develop the concept of pre‐screening, which denotes collective action patterns geared towards qualifying individuals' innovative ideas before they are made subject to formal decision making. We explain how proactive individuals' tactical considerations—informed by their holistic prospective thinking, risk hedging, temporal splitting, and a both/and approach to proactivity and hierarchy—influence the actions through which ideas are shared and who are approached first (e.g., supervisors vs. peers). We also exemplify how action patterns accomplishing idea sharing and pre‐screening are entangled with more mundane workplace routines. Overall, the paper sheds new light on ideas' journeys in the context of hierarchy and opens up multiple avenues for future research.
... For example, when the powerful lack legitimacy (a threat to power), they diverge from stereotypical power moves (Hays & Goldstein, 2015;Lammers et al., 2008;Rodriguez-Bailon et al., 2000). Similarly, power instability (Sligte et al., 2011) and feelings of inadequacy stemming from incompetence (Fast & Chen, 2009) are meaningful threats to power. In addition, the present work contributes to the understanding of lack of power. ...
... Considerably little is known about the ethical conduct of the powerless. Prior research has shown that when power is unstable, the powerless can be cognitively flexible and less avoidant compared to when power is stable Sligte et al., 2011). This suggests that when power is unstable, the powerless may decrease their loss aversion and related unethical behavior. ...
Power has long been associated with corruption, yet most evidence has been linked to abuses for gains (money, resources, sex). In this article, we propose a conceptual framework that considers unethical conduct to obtain gains and to avoid losses. Following the situated focus theory of power (Guinote, 2007), we propose that power flexibly orients individuals’ cognitions and efforts in line with active goals. Under a gains frame, compared to the powerless, the powerful should be more motivated to obtain gains and cheat more, in order to protect these gains. Under a loss frame, the powerful should experience a temporary activation of loss aversion goals, while the powerless should experience a chronic activation of loss aversion goals. Consequently, power differences in corruption levels should only occur for gains and not when losses are at stake. The effects of power and frame were demonstrated in one study (N = 321). The findings provided initial evidence supporting the notion that an understanding of the effects of power on corruption necessitates a consideration of contextual framing.
... Studies have indicated that compared with their powerless counterparts, powerful individuals are more creative (Galinsky et al., 2008;Smith & Trope, 2006), act more swiftly when faced with an annoying obstacle (Galinsky et al., 2003), and report more ways to reach their goals (Guinote, 2007). A positive relationship between power at work and proactive engagement and productivity has been reported in the literature on organizational sociology (Sligte et al., 2011). ...
... The positive correlations between sense of power and hope-agency and hope-pathway suggested that perceived high power was associated with building determination in terms of ability and broadening strategies in terms of ways to achieve desired goals. Thses findings are consistent with previous studies which showed that have sense of power is associated with relatively higher levels of agency and tenacity (Deng et al., 2018;Rucker et al., 2012), and flexibility and creativity (Galinsky et al., 2008;Guinote, 2007;Sligte et al., 2011) than less powerful counterparts. Moreover, our results extend previous findings by introducing dispositional hope to explain the psychological mechanism underlying the association between sense of power and well-being outcomes. ...
Studies have shown that sense of power is positively associated with subjective well-being, but this relationship has proved inconsistent in collectivist contexts. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between sense of power, well-being outcomes, and psychological maladjustment in Chinese early adults, and further investigated the potential mediating role of hope. Sense of power, dispositional hope, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect were measured in Study 1 (n = 522). Sense of power was found to be positively related to hope and to emotional and cognitive well-being. Furthermore, mediating analysis indicated that hope-agency (but not hope-pathway) was a significant mediator of the relationship between perceived power and subjective well-being. Study 2 (n = 391) additionally measured loneliness and perceived stress as components of psychological maladjustment. The results showed that sense of power was negatively associated with stress and loneliness, and that hope-agency partially mediated the link of perceived power to psychological maladjustment. Overall, our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between sense of power and well-being outcomes, and suggest that a sense of power might foster people’s well-being and mental health by activating their motivation to achieve desired goals.
... In the second group, Stability (Basic Values), three variables are included: The individual's religiosity, their trust in tradition and their trust in discipline and rules that need to be adhered to. Within this group, three sub-concepts are distinguished: Personal identity [105] organizational stability, with its most usual form relating to hierarchic stability [106] and social stability as an attribute of the environment wherein the individual lives and develops. In relation to personal identity, older research [107] argued in favor of the positive effect of stability as a personality trait on creativity, whereas more recent research [105,108] ascertains a weaker correlation while emphasizing other human traits (plasticity, divergence etc.) as factors fostering creativity. ...
... Hierarchical structures which are a necessary component of social organization, create social stability. When power positions become weakened, individuals with little power are characterized by more flexible thinking and may have more creative ideas [106]. Consequently, in this case, stability affects creativity negatively. ...
Creativity is a critical element of sustainable development. In current paper it is described through Social Identity by identifying the main factors that shape the background of creativity. We conclude that health, maturity, and positive attitudes of cultural change as well as the social stability, the environmental care and finally, the incentives, material and non-material, shape the human creative dynamism.
... As such, divergent thinking can help people to overcome obstacles and challenges when pursuing important goals (Roskes et al., 2012). Sligte et al. (2011) examined divergent thinking in pursuit of goals related to social power. Their work showed that when power relations are unstable, individuals in low power positions generate ideas in a more divergent way, especially on tasks that allow them to demonstrate their own suitability for positions of power. ...
... Second, these findings extend research on divergent thinking. Previous studies demonstrated that the pursuit of important goals prompts greater divergent thinking (e.g., Roskes et al., 2012;Sligte et al., 2011). Here, we show that divergent thinking is similarly triggered by the pursuit of group-relevant goals. ...
This paper examines the role of organisational climate in women’s social responses to sexism at work. We argue that after experiences of sexism, women ‘draw together’ with other women when they perceive that the organisational climate is intolerant of sexism. We assess the role of organisational climate at 3 levels: Peer‐, manager‐, and policy‐level. We conducted a correlational study (Nstudy1=405) and two experimental studies (Nstudy2=377, Nstudy3=391), in which we examined women’s experiences of sexism at work (measured in Study 1; manipulated in Studies 2 and 3). We also measured perceived tolerance of sexism at the peer‐, manager‐ and policy‐level in all studies. The main DVs were women’s workplace friendships with other women in Studies 1 and 2, and closeness to female co‐workers in Study 3. Results showed that perceived tolerance of sexism from peers’ was especially important in shaping women’s social relationships following experiences of sexism; tolerance from managers or at the policy level had less consistent effects. Specifically, experiences with sexism were positively associated with female participants’ reported friendship (Studies 1 and 2) and closeness (Study 3) with their female colleagues, but only when peers were perceived to not tolerate sexism. When peers were perceived to tolerate sexism, female participants did not respond to sexism by drawing together.
... As such, divergent thinking can help people to overcome obstacles and challenges when pursuing important goals (Roskes et al., 2012). Sligte et al. (2011) examined divergent thinking in pursuit of goals related to social power. Their work showed that when power relations are unstable, individuals in low power positions generate ideas in a more divergent way, especially on tasks that allow them to demonstrate their own suitability for positions of power. ...
... Second, these findings extend research on divergent thinking. Previous studies demonstrated that the pursuit of important goals prompts greater divergent thinking (e.g., Roskes et al., 2012;Sligte et al., 2011). Here, we show that divergent thinking is similarly triggered by the pursuit of group-relevant goals. ...
For feminists, a core goal is to promote the interests of women as a group. Across three studies, we examined whether the pursuit of such goals can lead feminists to use more divergent thinking styles. We measured identification with feminists, identification with women, and manipulated the extent to which a divergent thinking task was congruent with the goal of promoting women’s interests. Results showed that—when given the opportunity to promote the interests of women—feminist identification was associated with greater divergent thinking. This effect was observed only in feminists who identified less strongly with women as a group (“distinctive feminists”). We conclude that distinctive feminists draw on divergent thinking to promote the interests of women as a group.
... Several studies indicated cognitive flexibility is associated with contextual information processing efficiency and facilitates goal-pursuit behavior. For example, studies of creativity have found that increased cognitive flexibility can motivate individuals' goals and help process multiple goal-pursuit behaviors (Lin et al., 2014;Sligte et al., 2011). Moreover, prior studies also demonstrated the positive impact of cognitive flexibility on flexible goal adjustment, that is, cognitive flexibility helps in the adjustment of actions and thoughts to changing situations and goal demands (Dreisbach & Fröber, 2019). ...
Cognitive inflexibility as a generalized characteristic of depression has been closely implicated in maladaptive coping with changing situations and goals in daily life. The association between cognitive flexibility and depression can be elucidated by situation covariation and goal adaptiveness of emotion regulation flexibility (ERF), which facilitates adaptive responses to changing environments. However, little is known about the contribution of cognitive flexibility to emotion regulation in depression under changing situations and goals. To address this gap, we performed three experiments to assess situation covariation and goal adaptiveness of ERF, and we further examined the contribution of situation covariation and goal adaptiveness to the association between cognitive inflexibility and depression. The results of Experiments 1 (N = 120) and 2 (N = 117) showed a significantly negative correlation between cognitive flexibility and goal adaptiveness (but not situation covariation) of ERF. Further mediation analysis revealed the contribution of goal adaptiveness scores to the relationship between cognitive flexibility and depression. In Experiment 3 (N = 93), we performed a 14-day training of cognitive flexibility and observed that the training increased goal adaptiveness, but not situation covariation, of ERF and reduced symptoms of depression. Furthermore, the improvement of goal adaptiveness scores significantly mediated the effect of cognitive flexibility on depressive remission. In sum, these findings identified a vital involvement of goal adaptiveness of ERF in the effect of cognitive flexibility on depression.
... First, we analyzed literature on the link between power and abstract information processing. We scanned Google Scholar for relevant articles and included eight research articles [9,[38][39][40][41][67][68][69]. (We did not include studies that tested the reverse effect, that is, whether abstract information processing leads to heightened self-perceived or other-perceived power.) ...
Power can increase overconfidence and illusory thinking. We investigated whether power is also related to the illusion of explanatory depth (IOED), people’s tendency to think they understand the world in more detail, coherence, and depth than they actually do. Abstract thinking was reported as a reason for the IOED, and according to the social distance theory of power, power increases abstract thinking. We linked these literatures and tested construal style as a mediator. Further, predispositions can moderate effects of power and we considered narcissism as a candidate because narcissism leads to overconfidence and may thus increase the IOED especially in combination with high power. In three preregistered studies (total N = 607), we manipulated power or measured feelings of power. We found evidence for the IOED (regarding explanatory knowledge about devices). Power led to general overconfidence but had only a small impact on the IOED. Power and narcissism had a small interactive effect on the IOED. Meta-analytical techniques suggest that previous findings on the construal-style-IOED link show only weak evidential value. Implications refer to research on management, power, and overconfidence.
... When power is stable, the higher the power motivation of high-powered individuals, the more inclined they will be to risk-taking behavior. However, in situations of unstable power (for example, when they need to rely on decision outcomes to maintain their power position), high-power individuals will strive to maintain their established status and the important resources they hold and tend to be risk-averse, in contrast to low power individuals who may engage in risktaking behavior to improve their power position to improve operations, gain reputation and sustained financial returns, and enhance their current power position (Hiemer & Abele, 2012;Sligte et al., 2011). Management rights represent a form of residual control, whereas equity signifies ownership control in the company, reflecting the interests of shareholders. ...
Digital transformation is crucial for companies to stay competitive in the modern business landscape. However, many organizations face obstacles such as organizational inertia, lack of unified transformation cognition, and weak top leadership. In this context, this study explores the impact of management power on digital transformation, based on the approach-inhibition theory of power. The study focuses on Chinese listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share manufacturing industries from 2010 to 2020. The study reveals that concentrated equity weakens management’s power stability, constrains their residual control, suppresses power, and undermines the effect of management’s power level on driving corporate digital transformation. Furthermore, the study finds that supervision mechanisms have a positive impact on management power. Specifically, the external audit system proves to be an effective regulatory mechanism, while the independent director system appears somewhat formalistic and lacks effectiveness in promoting digital transformation. This study contributes to the micro-foundations of corporate-level behavior, deepening our understanding of management power and providing guidance for digital transformation practices in corporations. By shedding light on the role of management power in digital transformation, this study highlights the need for companies to cultivate strong and stable leadership, ensure equity distribution, and establish effective supervision mechanisms to facilitate successful digital transformation.
... Creativity has been found to facilitate problem solving (Newell & Simon, 1972), conflict resolution (De Dreu & Nijstad, 2008), and power acquisition (Sligte et al., 2011), making it increasingly important in organizations (Berg, 2016). Consequently, leaders may seek to enhance employees' creativity, and the increased need for uniqueness can serve as a motivation for individuals to engage in creative pursuits. ...
Unique names have commonly been viewed as undesirable. However, our studies (total N = 6049) suggest the opposite: unique names are perceived as favourable to creativity in occupational contexts. Generally, people held a perception that unique-named individuals are more creative (albeit less likable) and therefore more suitable for jobs requiring greater creativity (Studies 1-2). Accordingly, participants tended to select candidates with more unique names for creative positions (Study 3) and recommend more unique names to workers in creative jobs for a name change (Study 4). Furthermore, real-world archival data revealed that artists (typical creative professions) tended to adopt more unique new names, which was replicated cross-culturally in American, British, and Chinese samples (Study 5), and that Chinese movie directors with more unique names received higher evaluations for the movies they directed (Study 6). Our findings demonstrate a novel form of name stereotype and its behavioural manifestations and real-world consequences.
... It would also be interesting to test whether other types of threats (e.g., stereotype threats) would yield similar effects to power, such that the stereotyped group performs worse in creative tasks but eventually catches up over time. Lastly, future research can test the moderating factors of the low power warm up effect, such as the stability of power (Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011) or one's creative capabilities. ...
... It would also be interesting to test whether other types of threats (e.g., stereotype threats) would yield similar effects to power, such that the stereotyped group performs worse in creative tasks but eventually catches up over time. Lastly, future research can test the moderating factors of the low power warm up effect, such as the stability of power (Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011) or one's creative capabilities. ...
Prior research suggests that having power makes individuals more creative, because the powerful are more willing to break with convention. We investigate the possibility that lower power individuals can also be creative when given the opportunity to warm up by completing a creative task more than once. In Study 1 (N = 153), we divided a creative ideation session into two consecutive rounds and found that low (vs. high) power individuals were less creative in the first round (replicating prior research), but low power individuals improved in the second round, attenuating the low power disadvantage. We replicated this effect in Study 2 (N = 121; pre-registered), with a different creativity task (i.e., structured imagination task) and expanded timeframe (i.e., five rounds instead of two). In Study 3 (N = 179; pre-registered), we again replicated the warm-up effect using two different creativity tasks that allowed us to rule out an alternative explanation. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of our findings for research on the dynamic effects of power on creativity and the practical implications for creativity, social equality, and education.
... It would also be interesting to test whether other types of threats (e.g., stereotype threats) would yield similar effects to power, such that the stereotyped group performs worse in creative tasks but eventually catches up over time. Lastly, future research can test the moderating factors of the low power warm up effect, such as the stability of power (Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011) or one's creative capabilities. ...
Heeding growing calls to investigate the downstream consequences of being creative for psychological well-being, we propose that the consequences of creativity can be a double-edged sword—boosting feelings of autonomy while at the same time triggering a fear of judgement. In three pre-registered experiments (N = 740), participants were asked to generate either creative or non-creative ideas. Participants in the creative (vs. non-creative) condition reported feeling a higher sense of autonomy while completing the task (Study 1). This feeling of autonomy emerged because participants instructed to generate creative ideas were able to cross multiple idea domains and cross idea boundaries during the process (Studies 2 and 3). However, creative ideation also increased evaluation apprehension because the freedom to think divergently affords the opportunity for choice, which heightens the fear of judgement (Study 3). We discuss the implications of our findings for the promise and peril of creative ideation as a psychological intervention to improve well-being.
... This realization has led to burgeoning research on power and creativity. Some have examined the effect of objective power on creativity, showing that power positively relates to creativity through mechanisms such as cognitive flexibility and information processing, but only when power is perceived as stable (Sligte et al., 2011). Others have claimed that what guides individuals is rather their sense of power-their perceived ability to influence others -because this is more proximal to cognitive and behavioral reactions than objective power is (Anderson & Galinsky, 2006). ...
When sense of power helps or hinders creativity remains an unresolved question. Drawing upon the approach‐inhibition theory of power and its extensions, we integrate two different predictions into a dual‐pathway model, showing the paradoxical role that sense of power—one's perceived ability to influence others—plays in predicting creativity. Specifically, sense of power helps creativity through increased risk‐taking and simultaneously hinders it through reduced perspective taking. We further propose openness to experience as a moderator of the countervailing mechanisms, such that the positive path through risk‐taking is stronger and the negative path through perspective taking is weaker for individuals with higher (vs. lower) levels of openness. We test our hypotheses with three multisource and multi‐wave field studies (Study 1: n = 181 part‐time MBAs paired with peers; Study 2: n = 128 sales employees paired with store managers; Study 3: n = 153 sales employees paired with store managers). The results support our theoretical model, showing that sense of power and creativity are simultaneously connected positively through risk‐taking and negatively through perspective taking, and that the overall indirect effect of sense of power on creativity is more positive for individuals with higher (vs. lower) levels of openness to experience.
... Interestingly, however, unstable power hierarchy can enable low power individuals to be more creative (Sligte et al., 2011) because they think more flexibly, become less avoidance-motivated and process information more globally. In short, both one's position in the power hierarchy and its stability may influence the relationship between paradoxical approach and creativity. ...
Leaders and their employees must navigate competing yet interrelated demands and processes when developing and implementing creative ideas. They have to engage in divergent and convergent thinking, challenge existing assumptions and accept them, plan and persist while remaining spontaneous and adaptive. We explore how, why, and when adopting a paradox approach to navigating such tensions enhances creativity and innovation. Rather than seeking to eliminate the discomfort associated with tensions by prioritizing one demand or process over the other, the paradox approach sees tensions as an opportunity for growth and learning. When adopting a paradox approach, people feel comfortable with the discomfort as tensions arise, and recognize that by engaging in one process they enable the seemingly opposing process. We review research on paradoxical frames, mindset, and leadership, and offer a comprehensive theoretical model that delineates the related cognitive, affective, motivational, and social pathways, as well as contextual and cultural boundary conditions. We conclude by identifying promising future directions for research.
... Status, one's position and influence within a social network, fulfills an individual's need for social esteem (Brewer et al., 1993); however, status-acquiring activities are comprised of evolutionary conditions which kindled profound competition amongst employees, because high status is a scant-but-valuable resource for power even at work and control within the (work)group (Huberman et al., 2004;Owens et al., 2001). That being said, members who are attempting to gain status within a workgroup might serve to benefit the team, using creative ideas derived from the traditional status quo and conflict to bring about distinctive resolutions, enabling them to reach a higherranked position within the group (Sligte et al., 2011). Conversely, an evolutionary viewpoint highlights the destructive consequences of status conflict, because it is detrimental to wellbeing and has a tendency to cause stress in individuals (Gould, 2003). ...
Status – one’s position and influence within a social network – is a psych-social resource which fulfills one’s need for social esteem. Striving to gain status in a social setup, including organizational settings, can cause conflict and reduce employees’ positive work behavior. This study is aimed at discussing two questions: first, how status conflict in team, a newly established type of conflict, poses a threat toward individual wellbeing and affects team creativity; and second, to what extent organizational awareness, an individual characteristic, might act as buffer against the negative effects of status conflict. The data was collected from 245 healthcare professionals from 55 teams and analyzed through multilevel analysis, after achieving the model fit. The counterintuitive findings at team level revealed that status conflict does not impede team creativity but causes depersonalization that could undermine the overall team creativity. This multilevel study serves to widen the literature, responding to the recent call for new research by investigating the effects of depersonalization caused by status conflict on team creativity. Likewise, from a practical standpoint, it also emphasizes social competency as a moderator that can reduce the negative feelings caused by status conflict. Additionally, the study extends the job-demand resource model by introducing status as an individual requirement in organizational context, arguing that depletion of status creates negative feelings which are ultimately able to lower creativity.
... Hieromtrent bestaat een levendig onderzoeksveld, zie onder meer (De Dreu, Baas & Nijstad, 2008;Baas, Koch, Nijstad & De Dreu, 2015). Daarbij is er nadrukkelijk een link naar macht als voorwaardenscheppende én beperkende factor (Sligte, De Dreu & Nijstad, 2011), een link die ook naar voren kwam in het in het kader van deze studie uitgevoerde casusonderzoek, waarin geconcludeerd werd dat politiek gedrag positieve effecten heeft als het de ruimte voor op leren (op cognitieve ontwikkeling) gericht gedrag borgt of vergroot en negatieve als het op leren gericht gedrag belemmert of verhindert (zie tabel 3 in paragraaf 8.4). ...
Organizations often invest heavily in developing and maintaining their strategy and an entire library has been written about how best to do this. On average, however, these efforts yield little. This is due to a lack of knowledge of and attention for the social dimension of strategy formation. Do the actors involved work together and learn with and from each other how the organization can perform better, or do conflicting interests result in a power game, in political behavior? In this exploratory study, learning-oriented behavior and political behavior has been made researchable in two ways, through identification and classification of actors' actions and through analysis of the functionality of their language use. A fine-grained case study shows that even an explicit learning-oriented strategy process from start to finish is a mixture of both forms of behavior and that behavioral choices are often determined by emotions rather than rationality. Political behavior usually appears to seriously hinder the ability to learn. The study results in contributions to the scientific debate and lessons for practice.
... Perhaps they concoct a negative rumor about the current leadership to get the president to resign so they can take over. This concept aligns with research suggesting that under conditions of unstable power, persons in low power positions tend to be more creative than those with higher power, particularly when power can be gained through creativity (Sligte et al., 2011). ...
The dark side of creativity entails using original thought to meet a selfish, negative, or evil goal, with or without the deliberate intent to harm others. Recent empirical advances have studied the behavioral correlates of such creativity, including associations with aggression, deception, and subclinical psychopathy. The time, therefore, seems apt to propose a theoretical framework for dark creativity’s development and manifestation. This paper outlines the AMORAL model of dark creativity, which traces a creative action from its Antecedents to Mechanisms and Operants to its Realization, and to the subsequent Aftereffects and Legacy of the act. We use both real-life and simulated examples to illustrate the application of the theory across multiple domains, from law enforcement to interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to help guide future scholarship and measurement.
... Perhaps they concoct a negative rumor about the current leadership to get the president to resign so they can take over. This concept aligns with research suggesting that under conditions of unstable power, persons in low power positions tend to be more creative than those with higher power, particularly when power can be gained through creativity (Sligte et al., 2011). ...
The dark side of creativity entails using original thought to meet a selfish, negative, or evil goal, with or without the deliberate intent to harm others. Recent empirical advances have studied the behavioral correlates of such creativity, including associations with aggression, deception, and subclinical psychopathy. The time, therefore, seems apt to propose a theoretical framework for dark creativity’s development and manifestation. This article outlines the AMORAL model of dark creativity, which traces a creative action from its Antecedents to Mechanisms and Operants to its Realization, and to the subsequent Aftereffects and Legacy of the act. We use both real-life and simulated examples to illustrate the application of the theory across multiple domains, from law enforcement to interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to help guide future scholarship and measurement.
... The results of Study 1 provide some initial insights in this regard. For example, we found that power fluctuation was not significantly correlated with the perceived stability (for related work see, Jordan, Sivanathan, & Galinsky, 2011;Maner et al., 2007;Scheepers, Röell, & Ellemers, 2015;Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011) or legitimacy (for related work see, Hornsey et al., 2003;Lammers & Galinsky, 2009;Lammers et al., 2008Lammers et al., , 2012 of one's perceived power. This makes sense because power stability, which reflects "the extent to which current power differences in a relationship are expected to endure" (Galinsky, Rucker, & Magee, 2015, pg. ...
Social power research has been limited by theoretical and methodological traditions that prioritize static comparisons of high and low-power states. This is a crucial limitation given power’s inherently dynamic nature. Accordingly, Anicich and Hirsh (2017a) recently developed a theoretical framework related to the consequences of vertical code-switching – i.e., the act of alternating between behavioral patterns directed toward higher-power and lower-power interaction partners – known as the approach-inhibition-avoidance (AIA) theory of power. Across five main studies and two supplemental studies, we present the first empirical test of this theory using a mix of survey, experimental, and experience-sampling methods. We demonstrate that power fluctuation – i.e., the extent to which one subjectively perceives oneself as alternating between psychological states of high and low power (or vice versa) across situations – is associated with two indicators of reduced well-being at work – psychological distress and somatic symptoms. We further show that these effects are mediated by role tensions (role conflict and role overload), and is weaker for individuals in routine task environments compared to individuals in non-routine task environments. Finally, we develop and validate methodological tools that future researchers can use to extend our findings including the Power Fluctuation Scale (PFS, Study 1), laboratory and online experimental paradigms (Studies 2 and 3), and a simple measure to assess power fluctuation in everyday life (i.e., SD of reports of momentary power, Study 4). Overall, we provide the first set of studies highlighting the negative emotional and physiological consequences of experiencing a fluctuating sense of power.
... Adding to our varied methodologies across these four studies, we also used four different measures of creativity. In Study 1, creativity was assessed by one of the most widely used measures of creativity, an idea generation task in which participants were asked to come up with alternate uses for a brick; we then coded for originality of these ideas (e.g., Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011). In Study 2, we used expert raters' assessments of creativity of dishes prepared in the TV show, Chopped. ...
We propose that multitasking behavior influences creativity on subsequent tasks and that it does so through a serially mediated process in which multitasking increases activation, which increases cognitive flexibility, resulting in a positive effect on downstream creativity. We build support for our hypotheses through 4 studies designed to establish both internal and external validity: an archival study using coded data from the TV show, Chopped, and a laboratory experiment test the direct link between multitasking and subsequent creativity; while a quasi-experimental field study with restaurant servers and a second laboratory experiment examine the full serial mediation model. Results from the archival study and the first lab experiment support the proposed theory of a positive relationship between multitasking and subsequent creativity. Results from the quasi-experimental field study and second lab experiment suggest that multitasking increases creativity through activation and cognitive flexibility acting in tandem. Together, this work yields important theoretical and practical implications about managing creativity in a fast-paced contemporary workplace. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... It is assumed that authoritative power relations must frame ingenuity and imagination, setting tracks on which the 'switchmen of history' must move and stage gates through which they must move. For example, such views are evident in static notions of power as positions in networks (Cattani & Ferriani, 2008;Hu et al., 2018;Ibarra & Andrews, 1993), the effects of power in terms of hierarchical distance (Gu, Wang, Liu, Song, & He, 2018;Sligte, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011;Yuan & Zhou, 2015) and how perceptions of individuals having or not having power (Magee & Galinsky, 2008) influence creativity. Conceived as such, power becomes a more or less finite resource that organizational actors compete over in zero-sum games. ...
Research on organizational creativity tends to emphasize fairly static notions of coercive power as positional authority and control over scarce resources. The field remains largely silent about power as a positive and generative phenomenon that can produce creativity. We seek to break that silence by amplifying and integrating the work of Mary Parker Follett and Michel Foucault in concert with recent practice-based approaches to creativity. Power in organizational creativity, we suggest, should first of all be explored as processes of connection, abundance and collective agency. We show that whereas established ideas of positional power over is related to assumptions of linearity and singularity of creativity, ideas of power with and power to are associated with a more dynamic, relational and process-based perspective. The latter set of views implies more attention be paid to processes of interactional framing through which people jointly attend to situations, reach new integrations and produce new social realities.
... According to Sligte, de Dreu, and Nijstad (2011) individuals in a powerful position are more creative than their powerless counterparts. In addition, powerful individuals take more risks in their decisions (Anderson & Galinsky, 2006). ...
Creativity is seen as a significant driver for successful marketing activities. However, little attention is paid to its shady side and little research on the prerequisites for unethical behavior of marketing experts and executives is on hand. In our experimental study we examine the mutual influence of power, honesty-humility, and benevolent creativity as predictors for ‘dark creativity’ (the use of creative ideas for malevolent actions). Participants (N = 387) were randomly assigned to a high vs. low power condition (role of marketing director vs. marketing intern). Dark creativity was correlated to benevolent creativity, power motive, and honesty-humility, but did not depend on the power condition participants have been assigned to. In a hierarchical regression analysis only benevolent creativity and power motive predicted dark creativity. Additional variance was explained by role identification. This article is the first to investigate the impact of power on creativity in an immoral occupational task. Our findings support the concept of dark creativity as a combination of cognitive abilities and motivational aspects. The manipulation of power condition should be replicated in further research.
... Typically, manipulations without a social-interactional element are intended to create differences in (psychological) power, which should then result in differences in the dependent variable. These manipulations include experiential priming in the form of recall of past powerful or powerless experiences (e.g., Duguid & Goncalo, 2012;Fast et al., 2012;Galinsky et al., 2006;Guinote, Weick, & Cai, 2012;Smith & Trope, 2006), semantic priming (e.g., Johnson & Lammers, 2012;Smith & Bargh, 2008;Smith & Trope, 2006), assignment to high or low power roles that are not enacted later on (e.g., Galinsky et al., 2003;Guinote, 2007b;Sligte, de Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011), or the adoption of a power-related posture (e.g., Carney et al., 2010;Cesario & McDonald, 2013;Huang, Galinsky, Gruenfeld, & Guillory, 2011). Among these manipulations, experiential priming is most popular. 2 Of course, this experimental approach has undeniable strengths such as high internal validity and the causal interpretability of effects (Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002). ...
... Previous research on lay perceptions of hierarchy pointed to hierarchies' stability and mutability as important dimensions that shape how individuals experience them (Hays & Bendersky, 2015;Sligte, de Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011). In Study 5, we sought to replicate key elements of Study 4 while ruling out the alternative explanation that the effects of ladders and pyramids on group processes are due to differences in hierarchical instability and mutability. ...
Hierarchies take different forms, which individuals mentally represent using different geometric shapes. We propose and empirically demonstrate that individuals’ mental representations of the shape hierarchy takes affect its consequences. Five studies compared two common mental representations of hierarchy shapes—ladders and pyramids—to explore whether, why, and how individuals’ perceptions of hierarchy’s shape undermine constructive relationships within groups and group performance. Study 1 demonstrated that individuals commonly mentally represent hierarchies as ladders and pyramids. In Studies 2 and 3, employees who perceived their workplace hierarchies to be shaped like ladders (as compared with pyramids) experienced worse intragroup relationships. Finally, Studies 4 and 5 experimentally manipulated groups’ hierarchical shape in the lab and found that ladder-shaped hierarchies undermined social relationships and group performance relative to pyramid-shaped hierarchies. Taken together, these findings enhance our understanding of hierarchies’ multifaceted consequences and help shed light on the (dis)utility of hierarchy for group functioning.
... Although existing studies have demonstrated the promotion of counter-stereotypes on individuals' cognitive flexibility and creative performance, they have not considered possible mediating roles of cognitive flexibility among them. It is adaptive, as it helps people change their behavioral patterns and strategies effectively when facing new circumstances or environments, in order to solve problems (Heilman et al., 2003;Sligte et al., 2011). Presentation of counter-stereotype information is beneficial to improve an individual's cognitive flexibility (Gocłowska et al., 2013), which is closely related to divergent thinking and creativity (Evans and Stanovich, 2013;Barr et al., 2015). ...
The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between counter-stereotypes and creativity, and further explore the mechanism underlying the impact of priming counter-stereotypic information on individual creativity. More importantly, here we have proposed cognitive and emotional dual processing pathways, which may mediate the influences of counter-stereotypes on creativity. Two experiments examined how counter-stereotypes impacted creativity through the dual processing pathways. A total of 152 university students were recruited to test their creativity performance. In Experiment 1, we replicated results of past studies. Participants were randomly allocated to different priming conditions (stereotype or counter-stereotype), in which descriptions of male governors and female nurses served as priming of stereotypes, whereas descriptions of male nurses and female governors served as priming of counter-stereotypes. Measurements of creativity were based on the poster paradigm. The poster paradigm required participants to design a poster for a college fellowship party. In Experiment 2, we recruited 104 participants to examine the mediating roles of emotions and cognitive flexibility. The procedure of Experiment 2 was similar to that of Experiment 1, except for the measurement of creativity, which was Chinese idiom riddle test. Participants who selected more creative answers were more creative, based on the criteria of our experimental design. Also, we included measurements of emotions (i.e., surprise and delight) and cognitive flexibility (using the Cognitive Flexibility Scale) after priming of stereotypes and counter-stereotypes in Experiment 2. We also verified the credibility of our counter-stereotype measurements. The results of Experiment 1—which replicated previous studies—demonstrated that priming of counter-stereotypes promoted creative performance compared with priming of stereotypes in the poster paradigm. However, our proposed dual processing pathways were not fully verified by Experiment 2. The results of this experiment showed that neither surprising nor delighted emotion mediated the influence of counter-stereotypes on creativity, whereas cognitive flexibility did. In conclusion, our current study reveals a mechanism of creative performance in terms of cognitive flexibility, and further inspires us to focus on the positive influence of counter-stereotypes on creativity.
... More recent work in organizational behavior has attempted to resolve this paradoxical relationship between power and creativity. Sligte, De Dreu, and Nijstad (2011) showed that the effect of power on creativity may be moderated by the stability of the power hierarchy in an organization. Specifically, the positive effect of power on creativity holds only when power positions are perceived to be stable within an organization. ...
Our understanding of creativity has come a long way from when it was considered to be a mystical power. Indeed, creativity has grown into a defined cognitive process that can be influenced by a diverse range of internal and external factors. This article begins with a brief discussion of the history of creativity as a psychological construct and then outlines more recent work in the area, particularly focusing on how our understanding of creativity has been expanded in the last decade. In doing so, we explicate four defining factors that have been shown to play a critical role in shaping consumer creativity: cognitive ability, motivation, social‐personality, and environment. The article concludes with a discussion of three topics that we believe hold promise for future research efforts in the area.
... For example, a person who just obtained a promotion and was given new positional assets such as a company car may be more likely to focus on maintaining his or her current position than a person who was not promoted. In addition, among those holding a desired status position, increases in the instability of their current status position may activate status maintenance (Sligte, De Dreu, and Nijstad 2011). Thus, making salient the prospect of sliding back from a current status position (e.g., an elected official unsure about being reelected, an executive manager approaching the end of a contract term) may help activate the status-maintenance goal. ...
This research distinguishes between the goal of maintaining status and advancing status and investigates how consumers’ political ideology triggers sensitivity to a status-maintenance (vs. status-advancement) goal, subsequently altering luxury consumption. Because conservative political ideology increases the preference for social stability, the authors propose that conservatives (vs. liberals) are more sensitive to status maintenance (but not status advancement) and thus exhibit a greater desire for luxury goods when the status-maintenance goal is activated. Six studies assessing status maintenance using sociodemographic characteristics (Studies 1, 2, and 3a) and controlled manipulations, including ad framing (Study 3b) and semantic priming (Studies 4 and 5), provide support for this proposition. The studies show that the effect is specific to status maintenance and does not occur (1) in the absence of a status goal or (2) when the status-advancement goal (a focus on increasing status) is activated. Overall, the findings reveal that conservatives’ desire for luxury goods stems from the goal of maintaining status and offer insights into how luxury brands can effectively tailor their communications to audiences with a conservative ideology.
... During crises such as being in an unstable position, powerholders shift attention processing. For instance, they rely on local processing (processing of details rather than the broader structures; Navon, 1977), and lack cognitive flexibility and creativity (Sligte, Dreu, & Nijstad, 2011). ...
It is widely believed that power activates the behavioral approach system (Guinote, 2017; Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003); however, findings are inconsistent. Here we discuss evidence suggesting that perceived threats to control in the power domain are key determinants of the association between power and approach motivation. We propose that objective or subjective threats to the exercise of power trigger behavioral inhibition, conflicts between approach and behavioral inhibition, and reactive, negatively valenced approach motivation. Furthermore, threatened power holders reassert power—in particular by using coercion—as defense against threat. We discuss literature in support of these hypotheses involving external threats (e.g., instability, illegitimacy, and uncertainty) and subjective states (anxiety, motivation to maintain power, perceived incompetence, submissiveness, and perceptions of low power) that trigger the perception of lack of control in the power domain and undermine the positive tone of power holders' approach motivation.
Drawing on a dual cognitive pathway model of creativity, we propose that transformational leadership and directive‐achieving leadership induce employees' cognitive flexibility and cognitive persistence, respectively. These two cognitive processes differentially mediate the leadership–creativity relationship. Study 1 provides support for the mediation hypotheses, based on a sample of 189 Chinese and 138 Anglo‐Australian employee–peer dyads in a retail setting. Study 2, with a sample of 244 employees and their leaders from 66 research‐and‐development project teams, also tests the moderating effects of project stage. The findings show that transformational leadership has a stronger positive effect on cognitive flexibility in the early stage of a project, while directive‐achieving leadership has a stronger positive effect on cognitive persistence in the later stage. Cognitive flexibility and cognitive persistence, in turn, are associated with individual creativity. This research provides important implications for how and when different leadership approaches promote creativity.
Purpose:
This study explores how controlling leadership behaviors, such as authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision, affect police officers’ proactive behavior. Specifically, it examines how perceived powerlessness mediates the relationship between these leadership styles and officers’ proactive behavior.
Design/methodology/approach:
We employed structural equation modeling with partial least squares analysis to test our hypotheses, utilizing a sample of police officers employed within a regional police institution in Indonesia.
Findings:
The findings of this study indicate that both authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision have the potential to diminish or impede the proactive behavior of police officers by shaping their perception of powerlessness.
Originality/value:
This study contributes to the broader understanding of how leader-controlling behaviors, such as authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision, impact the proactive behavior of police officers within the specific context of Indonesia.
This research addresses the long-standing debate about the determinants of sex/gender differences. Evolutionary theorists trace many sex/gender differences back to natural selection and sex-specific adaptations. Sociocultural and biosocial theorists, in contrast, emphasize how societal roles and social power contribute to sex/gender differences beyond any biological distinctions. By connecting two empirical advances over the past two decades—6-fold increases in sex/gender difference meta-analyses and in experiments conducted on the psychological effects of power—the current research offers a novel empirical examination of whether power differences play an explanatory role in sex/gender differences. Our analyses assessed whether experimental manipulations of power and sex/gender differences produce similar psychological and behavioral effects. We first identified 59 findings from published experiments on power. We then conducted a P-curve of the experimental power literature and established that it contained evidential value. We next subsumed these effects of power into 11 broad categories and compared them to 102 similar meta-analytic sex/gender differences. We found that high-power individuals and men generally display higher agency, lower communion, more positive self-evaluations, and similar cognitive processes. Overall, 71% (72/102) of the sex/gender differences were consistent with the effects of experimental power differences, whereas only 8% (8/102) were opposite, representing a 9:1 ratio of consistent-to-inconsistent effects. We also tested for discriminant validity by analyzing whether power corresponds more strongly to sex/gender differences than extraversion: although extraversion correlates with power, it has different relationships with sex/gender differences. These results offer novel evidence that many sex/gender differences may be explained, in part, by power differences.
Contrary to creativity, power intuitively has a negative connotation (Pfeffer, 2010) and is often mentioned in connection with coercion and suppression, which limit opportunities and freedom of choice (Huxham & Vangen, 2005). Power in organisations concerns the effects of structures and processes on employee behaviour and attitudes (Pfeffer, 2010; Thompson & McHugh, 2002; Yukl, 2013). Power can certainly be used in negative ways. At the same time, power is a precondition for organising individuals to act in a collaborative manner in order to achieve shared goals (Fogsgaard & Elmholdt, 2014).
Power is an all-pervasive, and fundamental force in human relationships and plays a valuable role in social, political, and economic interactions. Power differences are important in social groups in enhancing group functioning. Most people want to have power and there are many benefits to having power. However, power is a corrupting force and this has been a topic of interest for centuries to scholars from Plato to Lord Acton. Even with increased knowledge of power's corrupting effect and safeguards put in place to counteract such tendencies, power abuse remains rampant in society suggesting that the full extent of this effect is not well understood. In this paper, an effort is made to improve understanding of power's corrupting effects on human behavior through an integrated and comprehensive synthesis of the neurological, sociological, physiological, and psychological literature on power. The structural limits of justice systems' capability to hold powerful people accountable are also discussed.
Status stability, which refers to the stability of team members’ relative status levels, has a profound effect on team effectiveness, but this effect may be either constructive or destructive; the literature has failed to reach consensus on this topic. To reconcile two contradictory views based on differentiating between different types of conflict, we constructed a comprehensive theoretical model of the mechanism underlying the effect of status stability; this model features relationship conflict and task conflict as mediators, status legitimacy as a moderator, and team creativity as an outcome variable. We also proposed four hypotheses on the basis of theoretical analysis. In this study, we used SPSS 23.0, AMOS 24.0 and R software to conduct empirical analysis and testing of 369 valid questionnaires collected from 83 teams using a two-stage measurement method. The results revealed that status stability negatively affects team creativity via task conflict and positively affects team creativity via relationship conflict. However, under the influence of status legitimacy, the negative effect is restrained, while the positive effect is enhanced. This study thus expands the research on the process mechanism and boundary conditions associated with status stability, and can serve as a useful reference for the design of the status structure of modern enterprises.
Vers une (nouvelle) psychologie sociale de la créativité
A sense of power refers to the perception that one can control and influence others’ states by providing or withholding valued resources in an asymmetrical way, and which has been associated with greater hope. However, little is known about the neural bases underlying this association. The present study aimed to examine these phenomena in 261 healthy adolescent students by assessing resting-state brain activity (i.e., the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, ALFF) and connectivity (i.e., resting-state functional connectivity, RSFC). Whole-brain correlation analyses revealed that higher levels of perceived power were linked with reduced ALFF in the left thalamus and increased RSFC between the left thalamus and left superior temporal gyrus. Mediation analyses further showed that perceived power mediated the influence of the left thalamus activity on hope. Our results remained significant even after controlling for the head motion, age, and gender. Our findings contribute to the neurobiological basis of a sense of power and the neural mechanism underlying the relationship between a sense of power and hope.
Supervisor-directed deviance is a well-established consequence of abusive supervision. However, prior accounts of the abuse–deviance relationship have overlooked the role played by power embedded in subordinates’ informal social context. To address this gap, we draw on power-dependence theory and use a social network approach to explain the link between abusive supervision and supervisor-directed deviance. In doing so, we propose a three-way interaction in which the abuse–deviance relationship is impacted by two components of informal power: subordinate social network centrality and subordinate influence. In particular, we propose that the relationship will be the strongest when subordinates have high betweenness centrality and high influence. We gathered full social network data, as well as self-report surveys from 272 primary school teachers and government contract workers in Northern China. Our results provide support for the notion that supervisor-directed deviance emerges most strongly as a consequence of abusive supervision for employees who wield informal power in their organization.
The present research explored the selfishness of power and status as well as the mechanism in Chinese work situations. By using experimental and survey methods, two studies were designed to investigate the relationships among power, status, and self‐interested behaviour (SIB) as well as the mediating effect of perspective‐taking (PT). Results of the two studies consistently indicated that power increases whereas status reduces SIB. These opposing behavioural effects are partially attributed to the fact that power reduces whereas status increases PT. In addition, our results showed an interaction between power and status on SIB in Study 1 (interaction as a mental function), and a positive correlation between perceived power and status in Study 2 (correlation as a mental perception). Through the discussion from the perspective of the self/other‐orientation trait, as well as the stable effects of power and status on SIB in the two studies, we conclude that power is selfish and status is unselfish in Chinese work situations.
Although previous research has identified various beneficial consequences of power sharing, less research has examined antecedents of leaders’ power sharing. To address this gap, across five studies, the present research identifies important social and psychological barriers to leaders’ power sharing. Studies 1a, 1b, and 2 demonstrate that the instability of a leader’s power position undermines his or her power sharing. Study 3 then demonstrates that distrust acts as a key psychological mechanism that can explain this relationship. Then, in Study 4, we distinguish between two dimensions of distrust and examine the moderating role of subordinates’ seniority. We show that subordinates’ seniority moderates the indirect association between power instability and power sharing, via benevolence and ability distrust, such that this indirect relationship is more pronounced for relatively senior (compared to junior) subordinates. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights into when, why, and with whom leaders are more or less willing to share their power.
A number of studies have examined how employees regulate their behaviors in keeping with their leaders’ formal control (e.g., authoritarian leadership) or informal control (e.g., abusive supervision). Yet, these two lines of investigation are largely unintegrated. Drawing on a social control perspective, we integrate these two forms of controlling behaviors into one coherent model and link them to employee proactive behaviors. We propose that authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision substitute effects from each other in thwarting followers’ proactivity by increasing their perceived powerlessness. We then test our hypotheses with three field samples of Chinese supervisor-subordinate dyads, using different exemplary behaviors to operationalize proactivity (i.e., taking charge, personal initiative, and proactive performance). The findings across the three studies show that authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision weaken each other’s effects in terms of inhibiting subordinate proactive behaviors. Moreover, in our third study, perceived powerlessness mediates this interaction effect. These results, however, do not generalize to employee affiliative behaviors, operationalized as altruism, cooperation, and conscientious behaviors. The implications of our findings for theory and practice are discussed.
Gossip entails spreading evaluative information about people who are not present. From a social exchange perspective, we examined how hierarchical power relationships shape individuals’ gossip motives and behavior. Results of a laboratory experiment (Study 1) partially supported our prediction that gossip is less likely and elaborate in downward compared to upward and lateral interactions. We further predicted that people gossip laterally to seek information and social support, and upwards to exert influence. A scenario (Study 2) and critical incident study (Study 3) with working populations showed that lateral gossip was more functional for seeking information and expressive social support, whereas upward gossip (Study 2) and upward and lateral gossip (Study 3) were more functional for exerting informal influence and for seeking instrumental support. These results confirm our notion that gossip is functional behavior that enables individuals in hierarchical power relationships to strategically exchange different social resources (i.e., information, influence, support).
Introduction Open any introductory marketing textbook and you will learn that the role of the firm is to create, communicate, and deliver value to the consumer who, in turn, takes the passive role of paying and consuming. For many years, this was, in fact, how marketers, consumer researchers, and psychologists perceived these two roles; the notion of consumer input into value creation was almost entirely neglected.This began to change when researchers in the area of innovation identified product users modifying and innovating on their own. In fact, von Hippel, De Jong, and Flowers (2012) found that in a representative sample of UK consumers, more than 6 percent had engaged in product modification or innovation during the prior three years, resulting in annual product development expenditures 1.4 times larger than the respective research and development (R&D) expenditures of all UK firms. More broadly, what emerged was the concept of “democratizing innovation,” that getting users actively involved in the process of new product development (NPD) can be a great source of value to the consumer and, thus, the firm (von Hippel, 2005). Today, consumer input is a recognized force in new product development, so much so that the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) listed it as one of its top priorities for exploration for 2008 through 2010.A parallel development in the marketplace has been that firms are going after smaller and more well-defined segments (Dalgic & Leeuw, 1994; Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). This is due to a number of factors, including the abundance of brands competing in many sectors; the rapid growth in media outlets, particularly online; and the increasing amount of information available on individual consumers. The result is that, in both media (Nelson-Field & Riebe, 2011) and products (Dalgic, 2006), the use of niche marketing is on the rise, while mass marketing is becoming an increasingly less viable option, particularly for new products.These two developments, consumer involvement in design as well as smaller target markets, have resulted in the practice of self-customization, where instead of offering ready-made products, the firm equips consumers with the tools to customize and design their own product. This can be viewed as the ultimate form of niche marketing, where the resulting segments consist of individuals.
Intergroup contact is widely recognized as one of the most validated methods of improving attitudes toward out-groups. Yet what is intergroup contact “good for” beyond this function? To answer this question we take a panoramic view of the literature, beginning with the recognition that contact is multifaceted in both form (e.g., face-to-face, indirect, simulated) and outcome (e.g., attitudes, cognition, behavior). Taking this highly inclusive view of what contact is and what contact does suggests that it plays a fundamental role in the shaping of human cognition. An increasingly diverse body of research demonstrates that contact exerts a generalizing reaction across target out-groups, making respondents less inward looking and more open to experiences. Contact shapes ideology regarding how the world ought to operate (i.e., ideologies about social hierarchy or regulation); over time, it can promote new ways of problem-solving, enhance cognitive flexibility, and foster creativity. For these reasons, we believe that contact is a key liberalizing agent that shapes human cognition and experience; consequently, contact theory should now share the stage with other prominent theories (e.g., cognitive dissonance) that speak to a broader understanding of human nature.
Four experiments indicated that positive affect, induced by means of seeing a few minutes of a comedy film or by means of receiving a small bag of candy, improved performance on two tasks that are generally regarded as requiring creative ingenuity: Duncker's (1945) candle task and M. T. Mednick, S. A. Mednick, and E. V. Mednick's (1964) Remote Associates Test. One condition in which negative affect was induced and two in which subjects engaged in physical exercise (intended to represent affectless arousal) failed to produce comparable improvements in creative performance. The influence of positive affect on creativity was discussed in terms of a broader theory of the impact of positive affect on cognitive organization.
People approach pleasure and avoid pain. To discover the true nature of approach–avoidance motivation, psychologists need to move beyond this hedonic principle to the principles that underlie the different ways that it operates. One such principle is regulatory focus, which distinguishes self-regulation with a promotion focus (accomplishments and aspirations) from self-regulation with a prevention focus (safety and responsibilities). This principle is used to reconsider the fundamental nature of approach–avoidance, expectancy–value relations, and emotional and evaluative sensitivities. Both types of regulatory focus are applied to phenonomena that have been treated in terms of either promotion (e.g., well-being) or prevention (e.g., cognitive dissonance). Then, regulatory focus is distinguished from regulatory anticipation and regulatory reference, 2 other principles underlying the different ways that people approach pleasure and avoid pain.
Hierarchy is such a defining and pervasive feature of organizations that its forms and basic functions are often taken for granted in organizational research. In this review, we revisit some basic psychological and sociological elements of hierarchy and argue that status and power are two important yet distinct bases of hierarchical differentiation. We first define power and status and distinguish our definitions from previous conceptualizations. We then integrate a number of different literatures to explain why status and power hierarchies tend to be self‐reinforcing. Power, related to one’s control over valued resources, transforms individual psychology such that the powerful think and act in ways that lead to the retention and acquisition of power. Status, related to the respect one has in the eyes of others, generates expectations for behavior and opportunities for advancement that favor those with a prior status advantage. We also explore the role that hierarchy‐enhancing belief systems play in stabilizing hierarchy, both from the bottom up and from the top down. Finally, we address a number of factors that we think are instrumental in explaining the conditions under which hierarchies change. Our framework suggests a number of avenues for future research on the bases, causes, and consequences of hierarchy in groups and organizations.
The mating mind' revives and extends Darwin's suggestion that sexual selection through mate choice was important in human mental evolution - especially the more 'self-expressive' aspects of human behavior, such as art, morality, language, and creativity. Their 'survival value' has proven elusive, but their adaptive design features suggest they evolved through mutual mate choice, in both sexes, to advertise intelligence, creativity, moral character, and heritable fitness. The supporting evidence includes human mate preferences, courtship behavior, behavior genetics, psychometrics, and life history patterns. The theory makes many testable predictions, and sheds new light on human cognition, motivation, communication, sexuality, and culture.
Reviews the five-fold typology conceptualization of social power developed by J. French and B. H. Raven (1959) and discusses numerous field studies that have used this conceptualization over the past few decades. Unfortunately, a majority of them suffer from severe methodological shortcomings that make their interpretation problematic at best. These problems are discussed, and a reanalysis of the literature is presented. Findings strongly suggest that at least some knowledge about the 5 bases of power (reward, coercive/punishment, legitimate, expert, and referent) is methodologically suspect. Suggestions for improving future research in this domain include attention to the development of more adequate self-report measures, the development of scales to be used as behavioral rather than attributional referents, and concentration on individual- rather than group-level analysis. (82 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We conducted four experiments to investigate free riding, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking as explanations of the difference in brainstorming productivity typically observed between real and nominal groups. In Experiment 1, we manipulated assessment expectations in group and individual brainstorming. Although productivity was higher when subjects worked under personal rather than collective assessment instructions, type of session still had a major impact on brainstorming productivity under conditions that eliminated the temptation to free ride. Experiment 2 demonstrated that inducing evaluation apprehension reduced productivity in individual brainstorming. However, the failure to find an interaction between evaluation apprehension and type of session in Experiment 3 raises doubts about evaluation apprehension as a major explanation of the productivity loss in brainstorming groups. Finally, by manipulating blocking directly, we determined in Experiment 4 that production blocking accounted for most of the productivity loss of real brainstorming groups. The processes underlying production blocking are discussed, and a motivational interpretation of blocking is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Used content analysis to assess the conceptual or integrative complexity of pre- and post-election policy statements of 20th-century American presidents. Two hypotheses were tested. According to the impression management hypothesis, presidents present issues in deliberately simplistic ways during election campaigns but in more complex ways upon assuming office when they face the necessity of justifying sometimes unpopular decisions to skeptical constituencies. According to the cognitive adjustment hypothesis, presidents gradually become more complex in their thinking during their tenure in office as they become increasingly familiar with high-level policy issues. Results support only the impression management position. The complexity of presidential policy statements increased sharply immediately after inauguration but did not increase with length of time in office. Complexity of policy statements also significantly declined in reelection years. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies were conducted to replicate and extend previous exploratory research by D. Kipnis et al (see record
1980-33577-001) on influence tactics and objectives in organizations. A new questionnaire was developed that included measures of important influence tactics and objectives omitted in the earlier research. Whereas the earlier research used only agent self-reports of influence behavior, the present research used both agent and target reports. Differences in downward, lateral, and upward influence attempts were replicated more for data from agents than for data from targets. Direction of influence had a stronger effect on influence objectives than on influence tactics. Despite some differences due to data source and direction of influence, the relative frequency of use for the 8 influence tactics was remarkably similar across conditions. Consultation and rational persuasion were the tactics used most frequently, regardless of the direction of influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The present article examines effects of power on basic cognition. It proposes that power bolsters the ability to attend to information selectively; enhancing the processing of information that is related to accessible constructs in detriment of peripheral, less accessible information. In contrast, powerlessness increases attunement to peripheral information, inducing greater distractibility and less attentional flexibility. Experiment 1 focuses on attention to an object and its context. Experiment 2 examines attentional focus and readiness to act. Experiment 3 examines attention to global vs. local aspects of a focal target. Powerful individuals, relative to powerless individuals, showed greater ability to inhibit peripheral information, and greater ability to focus attention in line with the demands of the task. Furthermore, inhibiting peripheral information facilitated action. The consequences of these findings for different domains are discussed.
The effects of idea sharing on cognitive processes and performance were assessed in an idea exposure paradigm. Participants generated ideas while being exposed to stimulus ideas that were semantically homogeneous or diverse, and were offered in an organized or a random sequence. As compared to a control condition, participants generated more diverse ideas when exposed to ideas from a wide range of semantic categories, and they generated more ideas per category when exposed to many ideas from only a few categories. The semantic organization of ideas was higher when participants were exposed to ideas that were organized in semantic clusters than when participants were exposed to unorganized ideas. Idea exposure had positive effects in general, because it reduced response latencies for category changes. Implications for information processing in groups are discussed.
Two experiments suggest that the experience of power can interact with a person's level of power motivation to produce effects on risky decision making. In Study 1, assignment to a position of power increased risk taking among participants with low levels of power motivation but reduced risk taking among participants with high levels of power motivation. In Study 2, participants high in power motivation again made more conservative decisions, but only under circumstances in which the dominance hierarchy was unstable and there was potential for losing their power. When power was irrevocable and participants' choices had no bearing on their ability to retain power, both high and low power-motivated participants responded by making riskier decisions. Findings suggest that although power may generally lead to riskier decisions, power may lead to more conservative decisions among power-motivated individuals, especially when the status quo is perceived to be in jeopardy.
A large and growing number of studies support the notion that arousing positive emotional states expand, and that arousing negative states constrict, the scope of attention on both the perceptual and conceptual levels. However, these studies have predominantly involved the manipulation or measurement of conscious emotional experiences (e.g., subjective feelings of happiness or anxiety). This raises the question: Do cues that are merely associated with benign versus threatening situations but do not elicit conscious feelings of positive or negative emotional arousal independently expand or contract attentional scope? Integrating theoretical advances in affective neuroscience, positive psychology, and social cognition, the authors propose that rudimentary intero- and exteroceptive stimuli may indeed become associated with the onset of arousing positive or negative emotional states and/or with appraisals that the environment is benign or threatening and thereby come to moderate the scope of attention in the absence of conscious emotional experience. Specifically, implicit “benign situation” cues are posited to broaden, and implicit “threatening situation” cues to narrow, the range of both perceptual and conceptual attentional selection. An extensive array of research findings involving a diverse set of such implicit affective cues (e.g., enactment of approach and avoidance behaviors, incidental exposure to colors signaling safety vs. danger) is marshaled in support of this proposition. Potential alternative explanations for and moderators of these attentional tuning effects, as well as their higher level neuropsychological underpinnings, are also discussed along with prospective extensions to a range of other situational cues and domains of social cognitive processing.
Nine studies showed a bidirectional link (a) between a global processing style and generation of similarities and (b) between a local processing style and generation of dissimilarities. In Experiments 1–4, participants were primed with global versus local perception styles and then asked to work on an allegedly unrelated generation task. Across materials, participants generated more similarities than dissimilarities after global priming, whereas for participants with local priming, the opposite was true. Experiments 5–6 demonstrated a bidirectional link whereby participants who were first instructed to search for similarities attended more to the gestalt of a stimulus than to its details, whereas the reverse was true for those who were initially instructed to search for dissimilarities. Because important psychological variables are correlated with processing styles, in Experiments 7–9, temporal distance, a promotion focus, and high power were predicted and shown to enhance the search for similarities, whereas temporal proximity, a prevention focus, and low power enhanced the search for dissimilarities.
Although power is often conceptualized as the capacity to influence others, the current research explores whether power psychologically protects people from influence. In contrast to classic social psychological research demonstrating the strength of the situation in directing attitudes, expressions, and intentions, 5 experiments (using experiential primes, semantic primes, and role manipulations of power) demonstrate that the powerful (a) generate creative ideas that are less influenced by salient examples, (b) express attitudes that conform less to the expressed opinions of others, (c) are more influenced by their own social value orientation relative to the reputation of a negotiating opponent, and (d) perceive greater choice in making counterattitudinal statements. This last experiment illustrates that power is not always psychologically liberating; it can create internal conflict, arousing dissonance, and thereby lead to attitude change. Across the experiments, high-power participants were immune to the typical press of situations, with intrapsychic processes having greater sway than situational or interpersonal ones on their creative and attitudinal expressions.
The authors investigate the effect of power differences and associated expectations in social decision making. Using a modified ultimatum game, the authors show that allocators lower their offers to recipients when the power difference shifts in favor of the allocator. Remarkably, however, when recipients are completely powerless, offers increase. This effect is mediated by a change in framing of the situation: When the opponent is without power, feelings of social responsibility are evoked. On the recipient side, the authors show that recipients do not anticipate these higher outcomes resulting from powerlessness. They prefer more power over less, expecting higher outcomes when they are more powerful, especially when less power entails powerlessness. Results are discussed in relation to empathy gaps and social responsibility.
This meta-analysis synthesized 102 effect sizes reflecting the relation between specific moods and creativity. Effect sizes overall revealed that positive moods produce more creativity than mood-neutral controls (r= .15), but no significant differences between negative moods and mood-neutral controls (r= -.03) or between positive and negative moods (r= .04) were observed. Creativity is enhanced most by positive mood states that are activating and associated with an approach motivation and promotion focus (e.g., happiness), rather than those that are deactivating and associated with an avoidance motivation and prevention focus (e.g., relaxed). Negative, deactivating moods with an approach motivation and a promotion focus (e.g., sadness) were not associated with creativity, but negative, activating moods with an avoidance motivation and a prevention focus (fear, anxiety) were associated with lower creativity, especially when assessed as cognitive flexibility. With a few exceptions, these results generalized across experimental and correlational designs, populations (students vs. general adult population), and facet of creativity (e.g., fluency, flexibility, originality, eureka/insight). The authors discuss theoretical implications and highlight avenues for future research on specific moods, creativity, and their relationships.
According to the traditional threat-rigidity reasoning, people in social conflict will be less flexible, less creative, more narrow-minded, and more rigid in their thinking when they adopt a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set. The authors propose and test an alternative, motivated focus account that better fits existing evidence. The authors report experimental results inconsistent with a threat-rigidity account, but supporting the idea that people focus their cognitive resources on conflict-related material more when in a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set: Disputants with a conflict (cooperation) set have broader (smaller) and more (less) inclusive cognitive categories when the domain of thought is (un)related to conflict (Experiment 1a-1b). Furthermore, they generate more, and more original competition tactics (Experiments 2-4), especially when they have low rather than high need for cognitive closure. Implications for conflict theory, for motivated information processing, and creativity research are discussed.
In 4 experiments, the authors examined to what extent information related to different social needs (i.e., power vs. affiliation) is associated with hemispheric laterality. Response latencies to a lateralized dot-probe task following lateralized pictures or verbal labels that were associated with positive or negative episodes related to power, affiliation, or achievement revealed clear-cut laterality effects. These effects were a function of need content rather than of valence: Power-related stimuli were associated with right visual field (left hemisphere) superiority, whereas affiliation-related stimuli were associated with left visual field (right hemisphere) superiority. Additional results demonstrated that in contrast to power, affiliation primes were associated with better discrimination between coherent word triads (e.g., goat, pass, and green, all related to mountain) and noncoherent triads, a remote associate task known to activate areas of the right hemisphere.
The two volumes of The Social Dimension present a comprehensive survey of the major developments in social psychology which took place in Europe during the very active 1970s and 1980s. They aim to capture the diversity and vitality of the discipline, stress the growing emphasis on fully social analyses of social psychological phenomena - hence 'the social dimension' - and to provide a valuable resource for researchers in the future. Although comprehensive in scope, the volumes are not written in the formal style of a reference handbook. Instead, the authors of the thirty-three chapters, drawn from more than a dozen mainly European countries and all experts in their own fields, were invited to present their own personal overviews of the issues in social psychology on which they were actively working. Both volumes are organized into three main Parts. Volume 1 is concerned with the social development of the child, interpersonal communication and relationships, and the social reality, group processes, and intergroup relations. This ambitious enterprise has produced a distinctive yet authoritative summary and evaluation of the growth points of social psychology in Europe which will interest and influence not only social psychologists but many readers from related disciplines.
The subject of creativity has been neglected by psychologists. The immediate problem has two aspects. (1) How can we discover creative promise in our children and our youth, (2) How can we promote the development of creative personalities. Creative talent cannot be accounted for adequately in terms of I.Q. A new way of thinking about creativity and creative productivity is seen in the factorial conceptions of personality. By application of factor analysis a fruitful exploratory approach can be made. Carefully constructed hypotheses concerning primary abilities will lead to the use of novel types of tests. New factors will be discovered that will provide us with means to select individuals with creative personalities. The properties of primary abilities should be studied to improve educational methods and further their utilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies were conducted to replicate and extend previous exploratory research by Kipnis, Schmidt, and Wilkinson (1980) on influence tactics and objectives in organizations. A new questionnaire was developed that included measures of important influence tactics and objectives omitted in the earlier research. Whereas the earlier research used only agent self-reports of influence behavior, the present research used both agent and target reports. Differences in downward, lateral, and upward influence attempts were replicated more for data from agents than for data from targets. Direction of influence had a stronger effect on influence objectives than on influence tactics. Despite some differences due to data source and direction of influence, the relative frequency of use for the 8 influence tactics was remarkably similar across conditions. Consultation and rational persuasion were the tactics used most frequently, regardless of the direction of influence.
Within GLOMO (the GLObal versus LOcal processing MOdel, a systems account) we examine the functionalities of two processing systems that process information either globally or locally (looking at the forest vs. the trees). GLOMO suggests that (a) global versus local perceptual processing carries over to other tasks; (b) perceptual processing is related to conceptual processing (e.g., creative/analytic tasks; face/verbal recognition; similarity/dissimilarity generation; abstract/concrete construals, distance estimates, inclusive/exclusive categorization; assimilation/contrast in social judgments); (c) perceptual and conceptual processing is elicited by real-world variables (e.g., mood, exteroceptive and interoceptive cues of approach/avoidance, promotion/prevention focus, high/low power, distance, obstacles, novelty/familiarity, love/sex, interdependent/independent selves); (d) regulatory focus, psychological distance, and novelty are driving effects; and (e) the global system (glo-sys) processes novelty and the local system (lo-sys) processes familiarity. We discuss whether glo-sys is responsible for understanding meaning, relate the systems to physiological research, and discuss new research questions.
Although power is considered by many to be a fundamental way people organize social relationships, we know little about the psychological experience of being powerful, or the underlying mechanisms through which power affects individuals. In this paper, we review evidence suggesting that power creates a subjective sense of separation and distinctiveness from others, such that high power individuals have more independent self construals than low power individuals. We also review research demonstrating that power is related to the quantity of interconnections with others, such that high power individuals have more interdependent relational structures than low power individuals. We argue that independent self construals and interdependent relational structures occur simultaneously, and mutually reinforce one another. We review current research that acknowledges both dimensions of power, and propose specific mechanisms that underlie the relationship between independent self construal and interdependent relational structures.
Based on work by Fiske (1992), we argue that power differences influence information search strategies during negotiation. Experiment 1 showed that negotiators with less power ask more diagnostic than leading questions, and more belief-congruent than incongruent questions, when facing a competitive rather than cooperative partner. Experiment 2 suggested that this result was caused by stronger accuracy and impression motivation among less powerful negotiators. Experiment 3 showed that belief-congruent rather than incongruent questions produce more positive impressions during negotiation. And when less powerful negotiators are asked leading questions about their willingness to cooperate (compete), they responded with lower (higher) demands. The results are discussed in terms of a motivated information-processing model of negotiation.
Previous work suggests that trait behavioral activation may link to creativity, a possibility the authors empirically examine in this article. This research is grounded in the dual pathway to creativity model and experiments on approach orientation, and the authors propose that behavioral activation potentiates creativity when and because it facilitates global and flexible processing. Four experiments support this hypothesis and also reveal that when external cues sustain or facilitate local and bottom-up processing, trait behavioral activation negatively relates to creativity. Possible explanations and avenues for new research are discussed.
The dual pathway to creativity model argues that creativity—the generation of original and appropriate ideas—is a function of cognitive flexibility and cognitive persistence, and that dispositional or situational variables may influence creativity either through their effects on flexibility, on persistence, or both. This model is tested in a number of studies in which participants performed creative ideation tasks. We review work showing that cognitive flexibility, operationalised as the number of content categories surveyed, directly relates to idea originality, but that originality can also be achieved by exploring a few content categories in great depth (i.e., persistence). We also show that a global processing mode is associated with cognitive flexibility, but only leads to high originality in tasks that capitalise on cognitive flexibility. We finally show that activating positive mood states enhance creativity because they stimulate flexibility, while activating negative mood states can enhance creativity because they stimulate persistence. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Mention "preferential treatment" in the context of college admissions policies, and most people immediately think of policies that allow or prohibit affirmative action. This association of terms is a by-product of the very public, ongoing debate over the justice and wisdom of affirmative action policies. However, there is another category of preferential treatment within college admissions that has deep historical roots, affects many students at elite universities, and is rarely mentioned in the public discourse. That policy is legacy admissions, and unlike affirmative action policies, its intended beneficiaries are the children of the already advantaged—namely, the wealthy and privileged. Why do these two types of preferential treatments evoke such different reactions? In their self-proclaimed fight for a "level playing field," shouldn't affirmative action opponents rally against legacy admissions as another impediment to the meritocratic process? The authors contend that similar legitimizing myths are prevalent throughout our society and that, for the most part, such myths serve the interests of the powerful at the expense of the disadvantaged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A presentation of the definition and concepts involved in a systematic theory of dominance which has developed out of a series of experimental studies on humans and infra-human primates. Dominance feeling and dominance status are distinct, but causally related to a certain degree, since the feeling reflects the status. Dominance feeling can be studied by observing dominance behavior. Yet, due to the principle of compensation, there may be a wide discrepancy between dominance feeling and dominance behavior. In some cultures women are expected to conceal dominance feeling in relation to men by compensatory "lady-like" behavior, and conversely persons with feelings of weakness compensate by dominant behavior. Feelings of inferiority or superiority are distinct from factual inferiority and superiority, since real superiority may be accompanied by inferiority feelings. Also craving for dominance is distinct from feelings of inferiority or superiority. Other studies, such as factor analyses, show dominance to be one of the few fundamental traits of personality. This trait varies considerably with different cultures and levels, but there are certain behavior patterns which universally indicate dominance as expressions of superior strength. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This book is designed to be a text, and aims to present the principles and procedures of creative thinking. The author claims that study of the general principles of creation and the methods used by famous creators can help a person do his own creating. There are 26 chapters, covering a wide variety of topics, such as "imagination in marital relations," "the age factor in creativity," "ways by which creativity can be developed," "factors that tend to cramp creativity," "the element of luck in creative conquests," "the value of thinking up plenty of hypotheses," "the effect of emotional drives on ideation," "creative collaboration by teams," and many others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies examined hypothesis-consistent questions under goals of information seeking and empathy. In Study 1, observers rated the informativeness and empathy of questions classified as diagnostic or leading, and as matching or not matching a hypothesis (extroversion-introversion). In an impression formation setting, observers rated both matching and diagnostic questions as especially informative, but in an impression verification setting, they rated leading questions as especially informative. Across settings, matching and leading questions both displayed empathy. In Study 2, participants expected to interview an introverted or extroverted person, under either an information-seeking or an empathy goal. Interviewers favoured matching questions, especially under an empathy goal. Interviewers also selected more diagnostic than leading questions. Interviewers and observers both consider matching questions informative, with the added benefit of showing empathy to smooth the interaction.
In this study, Mulder's power theory consisting of the power distance reduction tendency (PDR) of less powerful group members towards more powerful others, and the power distance enlargement tendency (PDE) of more powerful group members towards less powerful others, is investigated. In particular, two different interpretations of the relationships Mulder hypothesized between power distance and power tendencies are examined. In Experiment 1 no support was found for the interpersonal interpretation. Evidence for the intrapersonal interpretation was found only for the PDE.
The most remarkable difference between these results and the results of previous experiments was that we did not find any consistent support for an increased interpersonal PDR with smaller power distance. Therefore, in Experiment 2 a more extensive investigation was undertaken focusing on interpersonal measures similar to the one used earlier by Mulder and his co-workers. Results of these measures yielded support for the interpersonal interpretations of both tendencies. In the discussion an explanation for the obtained results is offered that departs from the (in) stability of the power hierarchy.
Although the concept of justification has played a significant role in many social psychological theories, its presence in recent examinations of stereotyping has been minimal. We describe and evaluate previous notions of stereotyping as ego-justification and group-justification and propose an additional account, that of system-justification, which refers to psychological processes contributing to the preservation of existing social arrangements even at the expense of personal and group interest. It is argued that the notion of system-justification is necessary to account for previously unexplained phenomena, most notably the participation by disadvantaged individuals and groups in negative stereotypes of themselves, and the consensual nature of stereotypic beliefs despite differences in social relations within and between social groups. We offer a selective review of existing research that demonstrates the role of stereotypes in the production of false consciousness and develop the implications of a system-justification approach.
[T]he rationalizing and justifying function of a stereotype exceeds its function as a reflector of group attributes—G. W. Allport (1958, p. 192).
This paper focuses on the interactive effects of power and emotion in negotiation. Previous research has shown that negotiators concede more to angry opponents than to happy ones, and that power influences the amount of attention that is devoted to the social environment. Integrating these two lines of inquiry, we predicted that low-power negotiators would be influenced by their opponent's emotions (conceding more to an angry opponent than to a happy one), whereas high-power negotiators would not. Five studies using different methods (an experiment, a field simulation, and three scenario studies), different samples (students, general population, managers), and different operationalisations of power (BATNA, number of alternatives, legitimacy, support) support this hypothesis. The results are discussed in terms of a motivated information processing model of the interpersonal effects of emotions in negotiations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The idea that global structuring of a visual scene precedes analysis of local features is suggested, discussed, and tested. In the first two experiments subjects were asked to respond to an auditorily presented name of a letter while looking at a visual stimulus that consisted of a large character (the global level) made out of small characters (the local level). The subjects' auditory discrimination responses were subject to interference only by the global level and not by the local one. In Experiment 3 subjects were presented with large characters made out of small ones, and they had to recognize either just the large characters or just the small ones. Whereas the identity of the small characters had no effect on recognition of the large ones, global cues which conflicted with the local ones did inhibit the responses to the local level. In Experiment 4 subjects were asked to judge whether pairs of simple patterns of geometrical forms which were presented for a brief duration were the same or different. The patterns within a pair could differ either at the global or at the local level. It was found that global differences were detected more often than local differences.
The hypothesis was tested that whereas members of a low status group show a physiological threat response when evaluating a performance situation on the basis of the status quo, members of high status groups show a physiological threat response when evaluating a possible change of the status quo. Participants were categorized in minimal groups, after which they performed a task on which group-level feedback was given (group status manipulation). Later on during the experiment, a second round of this task was unexpectedly announced (implying a possible change in the group’s status). In line with expectations, participants in the low status condition showed higher blood pressure directly after the status feedback, whereas participants in the high status condition showed a similar response in anticipation of the second round of the task. Results are discussed in terms of social identity theory, and the physiological assessment of threats to social identity.
The effects of power legitimacy on self-regulation during goal pursuit were examined. Study 1 focused on goal-setting and goal-striving. Specifically, it examined how much time legitimate and illegitimate powerless individuals needed to set goals, and how many means they generated to pursue these goals. Study 2 examined persistence in the face of difficulties. Consistently across these studies illegitimacy improved self-regulation in powerless individuals. Illegitimate powerless individuals behaved similarly as control participants. They took less time to decide on a course of action, used more flexible means to strive for goals, and persisted longer in the face of difficulties, compared to their legitimate counterparts. The implications of these findings are discussed.
In this study, we tested the hypothesis, derived from the theorizing of Derryberry and Tucker (1994), that the mere enactment of approach or avoidance behavior, without concomitant pursuit of personal approach or avoidance goals, can independently moderate the scope (i.e., breadth or narrowness) of attention on both the perceptual and conceptual levels. Specifically, we predicted that enactment of approach behavior would broaden attentional scope, engendering a focus upon global perceptual structure and facilitating conceptual access to mental representations with lower a priori accessibility, whereas enactment of avoidance behavior would constrict attentional scope, engendering a focus upon local perceptual details and “choking off” conceptual access to mental representations with lower a priori accessibility. These hypotheses were borne out in three experiments, using two different manipulations of approach vs. avoidance actions.
This study tested whether internal nonaffective processing cues independently influence two major varieties of creative cognition: insight problem solving and creative generation. In Experiments 1 and 2, bodily cues associated with positive or negative hedonic states were manipulated by means of arm flexor or extensor contraction, respectively, and the effects of these internal cues on creative insight and generation were observed. In line with our cognitive tuning approach, it was predicted that the “riskier,” more explorative processing style elicited by arm flexion, relative to the more risk-averse, perseverant processing style elicited by arm extension, would facilitate performance on both tasks. These predictions were strongly supported. In addition, Experiments 3 and 4 provided the first direct evidence that the effects of these internal processing cues on creativity are mediated by a memory search-based mechanism. Reported effects were independent of mood, task enjoyment, and the effortfulness of the motor actions.
