Influence Strategy, Perspective-Taking, and Relationships between High- and Low-Power Individuals in Cooperative and Competitive Contexts

Summary

Sixty-four undergraduates negotiated an exchange of resources in dyads. They had either high or low power relative to the other and negotiated within a cooperative or a competitive context. The results indicate that within a competitive context unequal-power relationships resulted in the higher-power person's use of coercion and the low-power person's attempts to negotiate. Both high- and low-power Ss perceived their relationship to be dominated by egocentric focus on one's own goals and attempts to control the other to meet one's needs. Within a cooperative context, however, both high- and low-power Ss were highly inducible to each other's influences, needed resources were provided to each other, high trust and liking occurred between Ss, and Ss were more accurate in understanding each other's perspectives. Unequal power seems to have undermined negotiations within a competitive context while not detracting from effective working relationships within a cooperative context.