The Impact Of Sense Of Power On Target Infectio

Goal contagion refers to the phenomenon that followers infer the goals of referees from referees’ behavior,then followers adopt and pursue such goals.Goal contagion describes the phenomenon of goal flow among people.It is an important goal pursuit process in the context of interpersonal relationship,a product of social cognition and social interaction,and a kind of social synchronization on the goal level.The studies show that as a kind of social influence,power produces the sense of unequal power,and then affects interpersonal goal flow,which is an important factor of goal contagion.As a social influence mechanism,the role goal contagion plays on promoting the communication and cooperation between individuals and groups.Firstly,considering the important role of power shapes social conformity(e.g.,obedience),the researchers propose that power is an important factor in goal contagion.Previous investigations on power have proved that goal contagion is asymmetric and the goals tend to flow from top to bottom.That is,the goals of high power are easy to infect the goals of low power,but it can not reverse the direction.Secondly,previous studies on negative goals have produced inconsistent results.Some studies found there was no negative goal contagion,but others found the ‘bad apple’ phenomenon had testified negative goal contagion spread from person to person.Thirdly,previous studies have not investigated the mechanism of power influencing goal contagion,that is why there is different results to explain power affects negative goal contagion?To resolve three questions above,the dual strategies for navigating social hierarchies is used to assume that power influence others through prestige and dominance.The dual strategies for navigating social hierarchies indicates that individuals exert different influences on others through acquiring knowledge and respect(prestige strategy)and using intimidation and coercion(dominance strategy).Based on the two-path model of power strategy,this study examines the mechanism of power on goal contagion.This study hypothesizes that power promotes positive goal contagion through prestige strategy and negative goal contagion through dominance strategy.In this five studies,we investigated the effect of power on goal contagion and its mechanism through two investigation studies(total sample size n =1385)and nine experimental between subject design studies(total sample size n =1495).Study 1 examined the mechanism of power on goal contagion through two studies.Study 1.1 revised and tested the goal contagion questionnaire to investigate the relationship between personal power(subjects’ perception of their own power)and goal contagion.The results showed that low power individuals were more prone to goal contagion.In Study 1.2 asked to nominate high power people around them(referents)in the interpersonal relationship and powerful relationship,The results showed that the higher perceived referents’ power was,the more goal contagion was.At the same time,the mediating effect of prestige strategy and dominance strategy on the relationship between power and goal contagion was verified.In Study 2,the participants’ power was manipulated through the role allocation paradigm,which were arranged to be the team leader or team member in the Lego tasks.Then in Study 2.1 and Study 2.2,the effects of power on environmental protection goal and materialism goal were investigated respectively.Referring to previous studies.The results of Study 2 verified the validity of the power manipulation paradigm and reaffirm that low power individuals are susceptible to high power individuals’ goals.Study 3 and Study 4 both examined the mediating effect of prestige strategy and dominance strategy on power and goal contagion.In Study 3,participants were also manipulated power through role allocation paradigm,then investigated and measured prestige strategy,dominance strategy and goal contagion,and finally demonstrated the mediation effects of power on goal contagion through prestige strategy and dominance strategy.In Study 4,the Moderating-of-Process Design was used to further examine the mediating effects of prestige strategy,dominance strategy on power and goal contagion.Moderating-of-Process Design is a kind of research design that tests the theoretical mediation model through statistical moderation effects.Study 3.1 and Study 4.1 testified that prestige strategy mediated the relationship between power and environmental protection goal contagion,and Study 3.2 and Study 4.2 testified that dominance strategy mediated the relationship between power and materialism goal contagion.In Study 1 to Study 4,explicit goal contagion measurement was investigated.In Study 5,the effect of power and power strategies on implicit goal contagion was examined through Moderating-of-Process Design.Study 5 examined implicit goal contagion through lexical decision task.In Study 5.1,we investigated the implicit environmental protection goals,we found that low power individuals were more susceptible to environmental protection goals(response time to environment-related words was shorter)under the prestige strategy condition.In Study 5.2,we examined the implicit goals of materialism,we found that low power individuals tended to be infected by materialistic goals under the dominance strategy condition(the response time to materialistic words was shorter).Finally,in order to further verify the reliability of the effect of perceived power on goal contagion,this study conducted a meta-analysis of the results of 8experiments.The results showed that individuals with low sense of power had a higher level of goal contagion,and the effect size was in the medium level.In summary,this study verifies the effect of power on goal contagion and the mediating effect of power strategy through investigation studies and experimental studies.Specifically,power affects environmental protection goal contagion through prestige strategy and materialism goal contagion through dominance strategy.At the same time,the robustness of power strategy as a mediator is verified at both explicit and implicit measurement.This research has certain theoretical significance,and also has practical significance for education,organization,and social governance.