The Relationship Between Sense Of Power And Effort Perception:the Chain Mediating Role Of Sense Of Control And Difficulty Perception

Effort is a very important quality of the individual and a virtue valued by society.We admire individuals who work hard and tend to work with them.This requires us to identify others’ efforts correctly.During cooperation,the perception of others’ efforts is especially important for people with high power,because they can determine the rewards and punishments and development opportunities of others.However,the perception of efforts by high-power individuals may not be objective,which may be related to the high power’s high degree of control over resources,thus affecting their attention to information.Based on this,this study intends to explore the relationship between the sense of power and the perception of effort and its mechanism.Established on the resource control theory of power,the control model of power,and the attribution theory,this study argues that the sense of power may reduce the perception of efforts.The reason is that the high-power have more resources,which increases their sense of control,which makes them pay less attention to the external environment,such as the difficulty of the task(difficulty perception),which leads them to underestimate the effort of others(effort perception).When the high-power notice the resources required for the task(task resource perception),they improve the effort perception.Therefore,this study hypothesizes that the sense of control and the difficulty perception play the mediating role in the relationship between sense of power and effort perception.,and the task resource perception can weaken the negative influence of the sense of power on effort perception.This was explored through three studies:The first study included three sub-studies,exploring the relationship between the sense of power and effort perception.Study 1a preliminarily explores the relationship between sense of power and effort perception by measuring the participants’ trait sense of power.It was found that individuals with high sense of power perceived lower effort.Study 1b initiates participants’ sense of power through a recall task to verify the relationship between sense of power and effort perception.It was found that after activating the sense of power,the participants perceived lower efforts.Study 1c used an imaginary task to activate the participants’ sense of power,and asked the participants to assume the high-power/low-power role in the situation.Participants are asked to describe the perception of effort,the tendency to blame,and the attitude of bonuses paying.It was found that the sense of power lower the effort perception,and increases blame tendencies and negative attitudes toward bonuses paying.The second study explores the mechanism of the relationship between sense of power and effort perception.Study 2 used a role-playing task to activate participants’ sense of power,and further verified the relationship between sense of power and effort perception.It was found that the sense of control and difficulty perception played a chain mediating role in the relationship between sense of power and effort perception,that is,sense of power increased sense of control,and therefore lower the difficulty perceprion,and thus lower effort perception.Study 3 explores the moderating mechanism of the relationship between the sense of power and effort perception.The manipulation of sense of power is consistent with study 2,and the participants’ task resources perception is manipulated through a writing task.The results show that after thinking and writing about the resources required for the task(task resource perception improved),the influence of sense of power on effort perception is no longer significant,indicating that task resource perception weakens the negative effect of sense of power on effort perception.In summary,the sense of power reduces the effort perception,the sense of control and difficulty perception play a chain mediating role in the relationship between the sense of power and effort perception,and the task resources perception plays a moderating role in the relationship between the sense of power and effort perception.This suggests that people in high power may have paid less attention to external information because they have a higher sense of control,which leads them to think that the task is simpler and thus that others are not putting in enough effort;When the high-power is aware of the resources required for the task,they are able to identify the plight of others and may improve their perception of others’ efforts.