Situational power and interpersonal dominance facilitate bias and inequality

A model is proposed that describes interpersonal phenomena that maintain in tergroup hierarchies and conflict. Situational control and interpersonal do minance are identified as conditions that promote motives to stereotype, le ading To cognitive and judgment biases that cumulatively reinforce the stat us quo. Three general hypotheses are derived from the model. First powerhol ders are predicted to use attention strategies that favor stereotype mainte nance, stereotyping subordinates by default (ignoring counterstereotypic in formation) and by design (increasing attention to stereotypic information). Second high-dominance perceivers are predicted to respond with the same co gnitive biases as people with situational power Finally, power and dominanc e are predicted independently to facilitate bias in explicit judgments. Res ults from our research program support the hypotheses. Implications for fut ure change are discussed.