Does the sense of power influence reputational concern? Tests with episodic and semantic power priming

Reputational concern shapes various social behaviours, since having a negative reputation often results in receiving negative social consequences such as ostracism and punishment. As such, individuals are motivated to avoid displaying socially disapproved behaviour. Previous studies have found that individuals with power (i.e., those who can asymmetrically influence others) tend to show various behaviours that would damage their reputation (e.g., aggression and exploitation). Taken together, we hypothesised that power would be associated with the extent to which individuals are concerned about their reputation. More specifically, we hypothesised that those who have a high and low sense of power would experience reduced and increased reputational concern, respectively. To test the relationship, we conducted three preregistered studies with commonly used power priming methods: episodic priming (Studies 1 and 3) and semantic power priming (Study 2). In Studies 1 and 2, the power priming methods failed to significantly influence the sense of power or reputational concern. In Study 3, we sought to overcome potential methodological issues with online episodic priming, and a modified high power episodic priming was successful. Yet, we did not find evidence for the hypothesised relationship between the experimentally induced sense of power and reputational concern. Our three studies offer valuable implications not only for further research on the relationship between reputational concern and power but also for the effectiveness of power priming methods. peerReviewed publishedVersion

声誉关注塑造了多种社会行为，因为负面声誉往往会招致社交排斥、惩罚等负面社会后果。因此，个体会有动机避免做出社会不认可的行为。既往研究发现，拥有权力的个体（即能够不对称地影响他人的个体）往往会表现出多种损害自身声誉的行为，例如攻击行为与剥削行为。
综上，我们提出假设：权力与个体的声誉关注程度存在关联。更具体而言，我们假设权力感较高与较低的个体，其声誉关注程度会分别降低与升高。
为检验这一关联，我们采用常用的权力启动（power priming）方法开展了三项预注册研究：情景启动（episodic priming，研究1与研究3）与语义权力启动（semantic power priming，研究2）。在研究1与研究2中，权力启动方法未能显著影响个体的权力感或声誉关注程度。
在研究3中，我们试图解决线上情景启动可能存在的方法学问题，经修改后的高权力情景启动方案取得了成功。然而，我们并未发现实验操纵的权力感与声誉关注程度之间存在假设关联的证据。
本三项研究不仅为声誉关注与权力之间关联的后续研究，也为权力启动方法的有效性提供了重要启示。（经同行评审的已发表版本）