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Power in mixed-sex stranger interactions
Cognition & Emotion
Format: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2008
Pages: 1555-1568
Sources ID: 22958
Visibility: Private
Zotero Collections: Contexts of Contemplation Project
Abstract: (Show)

The authors tested the approach/inhibition theory of power by examining teasing interactions between women and men in conditions in which either one was given elevated power or they were in an equal-power control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, high-power individuals behaved in a disinhibited fashion and were less accurate judges of their partner's emotion, whereas low-power individuals behaved in a more inhibited, indirect fashion and reported more self-conscious/anxiety-related emotion. Additional contrast analyses revealed only modest support for the claim that men would act in powerful fashion in the absence of explicit power differences, and that power-based differences were greatest when the man had power over the woman. Discussion focuses on different perspectives on the interaction between power and gender.

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Contexts of Contemplation Project