My Blog Of Knowledge: Breaking the Rules May Be a Power Trip

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.on May 23, 2011

Have you ever noticed that many people with power seem to flaunt their presumed authority by being rude?

A new study investigates this observation and discovers people with power seem to act the part by smiling less, interrupting others and speaking in a louder voice.

Researchers determined that when people do not respect the basic rules of social behavior, they lead others to believe that they have power.

According to the experts, people with power experience the world in a different way than the rest of us. The powerful have fewer rules to follow, and they live in environments of money, knowledge and support.

Most of us live within the written and non-written expectations of what is right and wrong, knowing that punishment and established limits are delineated.

A research team lead by Gerben Van Kleef, Ph.D., of the University of Amsterdam studied the question: Because the powerful are freer to break the rules, does breaking the rules seem more powerful?

In the study, subjects read about a visitor to an office who took a cup of employee coffee without asking or about a bookkeeper who bent accounting rules. The rule-breakers were seen as more in control, and powerful compared to people who didn’t steal the coffee, or didn’t break bookkeeping rules.

Acting rudely also seems to be perceived as powerful. People who saw a video of a man at a sidewalk café put his feet on another chair, drop cigarette ashes on the ground and order a meal brusquely thought the man was more likely to “get to make decisions” and able to “get people to listen to what he says” than the people who saw a video of the same man behaving politely.

Nevertheless, what happens when a “regular” person has to interact with a rule breaker?

Van Kleef and colleagues had people come to the lab, and interact with a rule follower and a rule breaker.

The rule follower was polite and acted normally, while the rule breaker arrived late, threw down his bag on a table and put up his feet. After the interaction, people thought the rule breaker had more power and was more likely to “get others to do what he wants.”

“Norm violators are perceived as having the capacity to act as they please,” the researchers concluded. Power may be corrupting, but showing the outward signs of corruption makes people think you’re powerful.

The study is found in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Source: Sage

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