When the going gets tough: Power affects the process of making tough decisions

ABSTRACT

Powerful roles often require individuals to cope with impactful, complicated decisions. The present article reports two experiments investigating the effect of manipulated power mindset on the process of decision-making under different conditions: high vs. low choice conflict (Exp. 1) or high vs. no cognitive load (Exp. 2). Results showed that under the high-choice conflict and high-cognitive load conditions, high-power participants were more likely than low-power participants to take less time, adopt an alternative-based (rather than attribute-based) strategy, rate the tasks as easier, and report higher confidence in and satisfaction with their decisions. Power had no effect on the decision-making process under the low-choice conflict and no-cognitive load conditions. These results suggest that power interacts with choice difficulty to affect the decision-making process.

KEYWORDS:

• Power
• decision-making process
• choice conflict
• cognitive load

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/N5Q3X.

Open scholarship

 

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/N5Q3X.

https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/N5Q3X

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China [19BSH127].

Notes on contributors

Xiaoming Li

Xiaoming Li is an associate professor of the Department of Psychology at Hunan Normal University. Her current interests include decision avoidance and the effect of power on decision-making. E-mail: [email protected]

Chuansheng Chen

Chuansheng Chen is Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior and Education at University of California, Irvine. He has diverse research interests ranging from cross-cultural psychology, adolescent development, cognitive neuroscience, and behavior genetics. E-mail: [email protected]

Xin Zhou

Xin Zhou received his MS from the Department of Psychology at Hunan Normal University. Now he has joined work on statistics. E-mail: [email protected]

Daoqun Ding

Daoqun Ding is a professor of the Department of Psychology at Hunan Normal University. His current interests include moral decision making and the psychology of poverty. E-mail: [email protected]