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  • 2012
  • Article
  • Journal of Applied Psychology

Does Power Corrupt or Enable?: When and Why Power Facilitates Self-interested Behavior

By: K. A. DeCelles, D.S. DeRue, J.D. Margolis and T.L. Ceranic
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Abstract

Does power corrupt a moral identity, or does it enable a moral identity to emerge? Drawing from the power literature, we propose that the psychological experience of power, although often associated with promoting self-interest, is associated with greater self-interest only in the presence of a weak moral identity. Furthermore, we propose that the psychological experience of power is associated with less self-interest in the presence of a strong moral identity. Across a field survey of working adults and in a lab experiment, individuals with a strong moral identity were less likely to act in self-interest, yet individuals with a weak moral identity were more likely to act in self-interest, when subjectively experiencing power. Finally, we predict and demonstrate an explanatory mechanism behind this effect: the psychological experience of power enhances moral awareness among those with a strong moral identity, yet decreases the moral awareness among those with a weak moral identity. In turn, individuals' moral awareness affects how they behave in relation to their self-interest.

Keywords

Power; Moral Identity; Self-interested Behavior; Moral Awareness; Commons Dilemma; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Power and Influence

Citation

DeCelles, K. A., D.S. DeRue, J.D. Margolis, and T.L. Ceranic. "Does Power Corrupt or Enable? When and Why Power Facilitates Self-interested Behavior." Journal of Applied Psychology 97, no. 3 (May 2012): 681–689.
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About The Author

Joshua D. Margolis

Organizational Behavior
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