POWRE: Social Power and Implicit Cognition

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People who occupy social roles in which they control what happens to others are relatively powerful, whereas people occupying social roles in which what happens to them is contingent on others' control are relatively powerless. Thus, power roles are often defined by the nature of the control of outcomes and contingencies that are ascribed to different partners in a social relationship. Notably, members of certain social groups (e.g., women, ethnic minorities) remain underrepresented in the higher echelons of social power. This inequality in the distribution of power among various social groups persists despite both increasingly egalitarian attitudes toward these groups and increasing numbers of qualified women and ethnic minorities in the workforce. Given recent evidence that powerful individuals are motivated (perhaps unconsciously) to maintain stereotypes when forming impressions of subordinates, it is possible that automatic stereotyping may account, in part, for these biased outcomes. Regardless of explicit egalitarianism, powerholders may neither be aware of nor be able to control the influence of automatic stereotyping on their perceptions of subordinates. Consequently, those holding power may inadvertently be creating the "glass ceilings" that maintain the status quo in power relations between social groups. This research will employ newly- developed experimental methodologies to examine the possible link between power and stereotype automaticity. Participants will engage in experimental procedures that preclude their intentional use of stereotyping or control over it. The experiments have three specific aims: (1) to test whether situational power automatically activates group stereotypes about subordinates; (2) to test whether individual preferences for power roles moderate these effects; and (3) to determine how stereotype activation influences powerholders' attitudes toward subordinates. The hypothesis underlying the experiments is that power will increase stereotype activation and promote preferences for subordinates who fit group stereotypes. This POWRE award will support the investigator in an 18-month Visiting Researcher position at Yale University. During this time, she will engage in a variety of research and professional development activities. In addition to devising a new line of research, she will receive training in computer technologies essential to implicit cognition methodologies and will prepare a theoretical paper integrating the literatures on social power and impression formation with literature on implicit cognition. These activities will serve to strengthen her current research program and methodological skills while increasing her visibility among scholars within the field.