Summary: Self-control, rather than impulsivity, often leads individuals to attain power. The research involved seven experiments with 3,500 participants, demonstrating that individuals exhibiting high levels of self-control were perceived as more powerful and suitable for leadership roles.
These findings challenge common perceptions of power dynamics, emphasizing the importance of aligning actions with goals. The study also suggests that failing to meet ambitious goals can diminish perceptions of power, providing valuable insights for organizations on goal setting and leadership selection.
Key Facts:
- Power Perception: Individuals with high self-control are viewed as more powerful and fit for leadership by their peers.
- Role of Goal Alignment: Acting in ways that align with personal goals enhances perceived suitability for high-power roles, regardless of deliberation.
- Impact of Goal Achievement: Not meeting ambitious goals can negatively affect how powerful someone is perceived, highlighting the significance of realistic goal setting in leadership efficacy.
Source: UCSD
Out-of-control behavior by CEOs and other powerful people constantly makes headlines – so much so that some might consider impulsivity a pathway to power.
New research from the UC San Diego Rady School of Management and Texas A&M University finds that having self-control is often what leads to power.
In a paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers find that showing self-control influences how powerful an individual is perceived to be by their peers, as well as how much power they are granted by those peers.
In a series of seven experiments with roughly 3,500 participants, both students and working adults read about or interacted with individuals with varying levels of self-control, which the researchers define as how much people tend to behave in ways aligned with their goals.
Across all experiments, individuals with high self-control were seen as more powerful, and as better suited for powerful roles, than individuals with low self-control.
In one experiment, working adults imagined a scenario where a colleague with the goal of being fit either ate a large dessert or abstained from dessert altogether. Researchers found that the colleague was seen as being better suited for high-power roles when they abstained from indulging, an indication of self-control.
“It did not matter whether the colleague seemed to deliberate before acting, or just acted without thinking,“ said Pamela Smith, associate professor of management at the Rady School of Management and co-author of the study.
“What mattered for participants’ judgments was whether the colleague acted in line with their goals. This pattern held across a variety of goals in our experiments, including saving money, being healthy and reading books.”
The researchers also found that people are perceived as less powerful and less suited for powerful roles when they fail to meet ambitious goals, even if their performance is the same as their peers.
In an experiment investigating how self-control often leads to power, a group of undergraduate students interacted with individuals who set various reading goals.
Some set an ambitious goal of reading 200 pages each week, while others set a more moderate goal of reading 50 pages per week. All of these individuals read the same amount – 100 pages – but those who didn’t meet their goal were seen as less powerful by study participants.
Furthermore, study participants were less interested in having those who didn’t meet their goal as the group leader in later tasks.
“To motivate their employees, organizations often want employees to set stretch goals – goals that are challenging and hard-to-reach. However, we found that setting a stretch goal and not meeting it makes someone look less powerful than setting an easy goal and surpassing it,” said Rady School PhD student Shuang Wu, the first author of the paper.
About this psychology and self control research news
Author: Christine Clark
Source: UCSD
Contact: Christine Clark – UCSD
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access.
“Self-Control Signals and Affords Power” by Pamela Smith et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Abstract
Self-Control Signals and Affords Power
Whom do we perceive as more powerful and prefer to give power to: Those who have self-control or those who lack it?
Past theory and research provide divergent predictions. Low self-control can be seen as a form of disinhibition, and disinhibition has been associated with greater power. However, high self-control can be seen as a form of agency, which is associated with greater power.
Across seven studies, we found that individuals who exhibited high self-control were seen as more powerful, and given more power, than individuals who exhibited low self-control.
This result held when the low or high self-control behavior was chosen either quickly or slowly (Studies 3 and 4), and when exhibiting low versus high self-control entailed the same action but different goals (Studies 5 and 6).
Study 6 demonstrated important implications of our findings for goal setting: People were perceived as more powerful and given more power when they had a modest goal but exceeded it than when they had an ambitious goal but failed to meet it, even though in both cases they performed the same action.
A meta-analysis of our mediation results showed that people perceived individuals higher in self-control as more assertive and competent, which was associated with greater power perception and then with greater power conferral. Perceived competence also directly mediated the effect of self-control on power conferral.
The current research addresses a theoretical debate in the power literature and contributes to a better understanding of how power is perceived and accrued.
