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Asymmetric goal contagion: Social power attenuates goal contagion among strangers
Author(s) -
Jia Lile,
Koh Alethea Hui Qin,
Tan Felix Ming'en
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2360
Subject(s) - emotional contagion , psychology , interpersonal communication , perspective (graphical) , social psychology , power (physics) , contagion effect , goal setting , cohesion (chemistry) , hierarchy , economics , computer science , chemistry , physics , financial crisis , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , macroeconomics , market economy
Goal contagion is an important interpersonal process. As people spontaneously infer and adopt others' goals, goals can be said to “flow” among individuals. We find that possessing power attenuates goal contagion, especially for high perspective takers. In a pilot study ( N = 157), we first affirmed the interpersonal nature of goal contagion by establishing that high (vs. low) perspective takers were more likely to engage in goal contagion. We then tested the moderating role of power in two studies. In both neutral (Study 1, N = 179) and low power (Study 2, N = 304) conditions, we replicated the pattern in the pilot study. In the high power conditions, however, neither low nor high perspective takers engaged in goal contagion. Our findings suggest that goals flow asymmetrically from the powerful to the powerless, which may constitute an important means through which power hierarchy and group cohesion are maintained.