心理学期刊:位低权重者爱弄权贬他人尊严

morning

美国一项新研究显示，位不高却权重的人，往往爱把别人踩在脚下。研究人员说，这或许能解释为何店员经常“摆臭脸”，甚至驻伊美军为什么竟会凌虐羞辱囚犯。

这项研究名为“权重位不高的毁灭性”(The Destructive Nature of Power without Status)，刊登在《实验社会心理学期刊》（Journal of Experimental Social Psychology）上。

南加州大学商学院助理教授法斯特(Nathanael Fast)表示他们研究工作地位高低和权力间的关系。他说：“我们发现位高权重的人都还好，反倒是有权力却没地位的人，会利用自己权力逼别人做贬低尊严的事。”

研究并以2004年伊拉克监狱阿布贾里布(Abu Ghraib)囚犯惨遭军衔不高的美军凌虐为例。

研究并举行实验，受试学生被随机指派扮演地位高的“出主意者”或地位低的“员工”，再从10项指令择一叫别人做。

其中，有损他人尊严的指令包括复诵“我很脏”、复诵“我没用”、学狗叫、列举自己缺点等。其它则有写下今天经历、说笑话、拍手、伏地挺身等。

研究发现，“权重位不高的角色，命令他人进行丢脸指令的次数，高于所有其它的权位/角色组合。”

法斯特表示，想改善这个局面，管理阶层可以告诉权重位不高者“这工作有多重要”，承诺奖励或升迁也可能有用。不过他也同意，不是所有权重位不高的人都很讨厌。

The destructive nature of power without status

Nathanael J. Fast a,⁎, Nir Halevy b, Adam D. Galinsky c

a University of Southern California, USA
b Stanford University, USA
c Northwestern University, USA

The current research explores how roles that possess power but lack status influence behavior toward others.
Past research has primarily examined the isolated effects of having either power or status, but we propose that
power and status interact to affect interpersonal behavior. Based on the notions that a) low-status is
threatening and aversive and b) power frees people to act on their internal states and feelings, we
hypothesized that power without status fosters demeaning behaviors toward others. To test this idea, we
orthogonally manipulated both power and status and gave participants the chance to select activities for their
partners to perform. As predicted, individuals in high-power/low-status roles chose more demeaning
activities for their partners (e.g., bark like a dog, say “I amfilthy”) than did those in any other combination of
power and status roles. We discuss how these results clarify, challenge, and advance the existing power and
status literatures.

http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~nathanaf/power_without_status.pdf

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