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Power and Perceived Influence: I Caused Your Behavior, But I'm Not Responsible For It

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Bohns32_PowerAndPerceivedInfluence.pdf (175.77 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/111289
Collections
Faculty Publications - Organizational Behavior
ILR Articles and Chapters
Author
Bohns, Vanessa K.
Newark, Daniel A.
Abstract

There are numerous examples of powerful people denying responsibility for others' (mis)conduct in which they played—and acknowledge playing—a causal role. The current article seeks to explain this conundrum by examining the difference between, and powerful people's beliefs about, causality and responsibility. Research has shown power to have numerous psychological consequences. Some of these consequences, such as overconfidence, are likely to increase an individual's belief that he or she caused another person's behavior. However, others, such as decreased perspective-taking, are likely to decrease an individual's belief that he or she was responsible for another person's behavior. In combination, these psychological consequences of power may lead powerful people to believe that they instigated another's behavior while simultaneously believing that the other person could have chosen to do otherwise. The dissociation between these two attributions may help to explain why people in positions of power often deny responsibility for others' behavior—unethical or otherwise—that they undeniably caused.

Date Issued
2019-01
Publisher
Wiley & Sons
Keywords
misconduct
•
causality and responsibility
•
consequences
Related DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12427
Previously Published as
Bohns, V. K., & Newark, D. A. (2019). Power and perceived influence: I caused your behavior, but I'm not responsible for it. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 31(1).
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Type
article
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