The Relative Role Of Power And Status In Stereotypes And Impression Management Goals

The idea that power and status are different has been around for a long time.However,there are few empirical studies on the distinction between power and status.A large number of power studies have found that people with different power have significant differences in social cognition,emotion and behavioral tendency.At the same time,a large number of studies on status have found that individuals and groups of status have different cognitive styles,emotional expressions and styles of doing things in different ways of gaining status.However,these studies have examined the effects of power or status,rather than combining the two in one study and assessing their effects on a comparable basis.To date only two empirical studies have attempted to distinguish the two in terms of other orientation from the perspective of justice and perspective taking.Given this research gap,further differentiation of power and status in other aspects is conducive to a deeper understanding of power and status,to better harness the hierarchical system of power and status to coordinate development and motivate individuals.To this end,this study intends to compare power and status with regard to stereotype and impression management goals at the individual,interpersonal,and group level.This paper reports the findings of three studies,which compared the effects of status and power on stereotypes and impression management goals at the individual,interpersonal,and group level by measuring participants' responses to adjective indicators describing attributes concerning warm and competence as dependent variables.Study 1 consisted of two pairs of experiments examining the effects of power and status on stereotypes(Experiment 1a & 1b)and impression management goals(Experiment 2a & 2b).This study laid the basis for subsequent studies on interpersonal and group level comparisons.Drawing from relevant literature,Study 2adopted social comparison in simulating different power and status conditions,and explored whether information from others' warm-competence judgement could moderate stereotypes and impression management goals.Two groups of experiments were conducted to respectively discuss on social comparison(Experiment 3a & 4a),warm to moderate(Experiment 3b & 4b),and competence to moderate(Experiment3c & 4c).The stereotypes toward interactive parties of different power and status levels,as well as the impression management goals intended to be conveyed to the interactive parties.Study 3 consisted of two sets of experiments which further examined the differential effects of power and status on stereotypes at the group level(Experiment 5a,5b,and 5c),and on impression management goals of the group member(Experiment 6a,6b,and 6c).The studies yield several findings.First,at the individual level,high-status parties are stereotypically perceived as having greater competence and more warm than high-power parties.In terms of impression management goals,high-power parties are found more eager to demonstrate competence than high-status parties,while no significant difference is found with regard to warm.Second,at the interpersonal level,high-status parties are stereotypically perceived as having greater competence than high-power parties;no significant differences are found in terms of warm.The social comparison results indicate that upward comparison tends to produce an impression of higher competence,while downward comparison tends to produce an impression of greater warm.The information from others concerning the warm-competence moderates the stereotypes of power and status.Participants have the impression of high competence and high warm for the people who have heard friendly,and have the impression of low competence and low warm for people who have heard of unfriendly.They have the impression of high competence and high warm for hearing and communicating with intelligent partners.Participants have a high warm and low competence to hear about unintelligent parters.With regard to impression management goals,high-power parties are more inclined to demonstrate competence than high-status parties,while no significant difference is found in the inclination to display warm.Information from others about the warm-competence of the subject moderates the impression management goals.Participants expressed warm for the people who heard that they are friendly,showed competence goals for those who are unfriendly,and showed competence goals for those who have heard of intelligent parter,and expressed warm for those who have heard of unintelligent parter.Third,at the group level,high-status parties are stereotypical perceived as having greater ability than high-power parties;no significant differences are found with regard to warm.The social comparison results reveal that upward comparison tends to produce an impression of higher competence,while downward comparison tends to produce an impression of greater warm.In terms of impression management goals,in the absence of a specified public audience,groups with different status and power levels all demonstrate high warm and great competence.The social comparison results indicate that high-power parties are more inclined to demonstrate competence than high-status parties,while high-status parties are more inclined to demonstrate warm.These results show a consistent stereotype of the same identity at the individual,group,and interpersonal level.The impression management strategy is adopted by the group of individuals only in interpersonal or intergroup interactions to achieve the intended impression management goals.Therefore,regardless of the individual,interpersonal,and group level,high-status parties tend to be stereotypically perceived as having greater competence than high-power parties.However,high-status parties are associated with a less stable stereotype of having greater warm than high-power parties.With regard to impression management goals,in a non-interactive condition,both individual and group at all power and status levels aspire to demonstrate high competence and great warm.In an interactive condition,however,high-power parties are more eager to demonstrate competence impression management goals than high-status parties,with no significant difference in terms of warm goals.The aim of this study is to enrich the empirical literatures on power,status,stereotypes,and impression management goals.The findings will help improve the integration of power and status social hierarchical models.The overall finding of the study that high-power individuals and groups need to create a positive social impression of competence to win due respect from other social members has practical implications for high-power actors including policemen,civic leaders,as well as corporate and institution managers.