Psychological Science’s Preoccupation with the Powerful

A pervasive assumption in the social power literature is that powerfulness is the driving causal force behind power’s far-reaching effects. This preoccupation with the powerful has led to the proliferation of experimental designs that contrast high power to either low power or a control condition. We review evidence suggesting that this convention poses both theoretical and methodological challenges. Across a content analysis, an experiment, and a large-scale meta- analysis, we find that (1) few studies allow for substantive inferences about powerlessness; (2) although control conditions are needed to interpret effect directionality, effects of studies comparing only high and low power tend to be attributed to powerfulness; and (3) comparing high power to a control condition in the absence of low power weakens construct validity and leads to an overestimation of the high-power effect. Our findings have profound implications for social power, experimental design, and other fields in psychology, management,...