New power in the hands of the chronically powerless can be toxic

In the 1970s, feminist theorists began to put forward what was then a controversial claim: that sexual aggression is essentially about power. This idea was important enough to launch experimental research, much of which has supported the claim – for instance, priming some men with a sense of power leads them to say they would be more prepared to coerce sex, and encourages men and women alike to believe a subordinate desired them sexually. However other research has suggested the opposite: that aggression is more likely when perpetrators feel less powerful, including in domestic violence and specifically sexual aggression contexts. To make sense of these seemingly contradictory findings, researchers from Emory and Stanford universities have looked at power more carefully. Their work, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, suggests that a person’s experience of power in the past and their power right now in the current situation are distinct factors, and how they combine is key. Melissa Williams and her colleagues first asked 372 participants (average age 33) to recall a time when they felt especially in control. They categorized those participants who couldn’t think of any such instance – around 10 per cent of the sample – as having low chronic power. Next the researchers gave all the participants a hypothetical scenario to consider in which they are working alongside an attractive individual who is single but hasn’t shown any explicit int...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: bullying Forensic Gender Occupational Social Source Type: blogs