Cheating may seem particularly wrong when it involves someone like Edwards, who touted family values. But from what research has shown, morality doesn’t preclude indiscretion. Power can make a person stricter in moral judgment of others while being less strict of their own behavior, new research suggests.
To simulate an experience of power, Joris Lammers of Tilburg University in The Netherlands and colleagues assigned roles of high-power, such as prime minister, and low-power positions, such as a civil servant, to participants. The participants were then presented with moral dilemmas. Results showed that compared with low-power individuals, high-power participants judged others more strictly for speeding, dodging taxes and keeping a stolen bike, while finding it more acceptable to engage in these behaviors themselves.
The underlying cause is three-pronged, according to the study team, which also included Tilburg University’s Diederik Stapel and Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Power makes people more egocentric, and so they focus on their own needs; power reduces a person’s ability to take on the perspective of others; and power makes people feel psychologically invisible.
“They become unaware that their behavior can be observed by others,” Galinsky said.
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