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Why do superiors attend to negative stereotypic information about their subordinates? Effects of power legitimacy on social perception

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Rodriguez-Bailon, Rosa [University of Granada] Moya, Miguel [University of Granada] Yzerbyt, Vincent [UCL]

Power can be defined as control over people's outcomes. using this definition, we explored the impact of power on attentional processes involved in impression formation. Because powerful individuals may want to maintain and justify their position, powerful participants should pay particular attention to negative stereotype-consistent information about their subordinates. In contrast, powerless participants should devote their attention to stereotype-inconsistent information in an attempt to increase their control over the social context. Study 1 directly manipulated control by assigning participants to the role of leader or subordinate ina task group. Results showed that, compared to subordinates, leaders devoted more attention to negative stereotypic attributes. Study 2 manipulated the legitimacy of power and replicated the pattern found in Study 1 but only when power was illegitimate. Our findings suggest that the experience of power can be associated with feelings of threat, especially when power is illegitimate, thereby orienting impression-formation processes toward information likely to maintain the existing social structure. We discuss our results in the context of current work on motivated social cognition, social identity, and legitimisation. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Article de recherche
Access type Accès restreint
Publication date 2000
Language Anglais
Journal information "European Journal of Social Psychology" - Vol. 30, no. 5, p. 651-671 (2000)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Ltd (W Sussex)
issn 0046-2772
e-issn 1099-0992
Affiliation UCL - Autre
Links
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Bibliographic reference Rodriguez-Bailon, Rosa ; Moya, Miguel ; Yzerbyt, Vincent. Why do superiors attend to negative stereotypic information about their subordinates? Effects of power legitimacy on social perception. In: European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 30, no. 5, p. 651-671 (2000)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/62205