Why do superiors attend to negative stereotypic information about their subordinates? Effects of power legitimacy on social perception

Power can be defined as control over people's outcomes. using this definiti on, we explored the impact of power on attentional processes involved in im pression formation. Because powerful individuals may want to maintain and j ustify their position, powerful participants should pay particular attentio n to negative stereotype-consistent information about their subordinates. I n contrast, powerless participants should devote their attention to stereot ype-inconsistent information in an attempt to increase their control over t he social context. Study 1 directly manipulated control by assigning partic ipants to the role of leader or subordinate ina task group. Results showed that, compared to subordinates, leaders devoted more attention to negative stereotypic attributes. Study 2 manipulated the legitimacy of power and rep licated the pattern found in Study 1 but only when power was illegitimate. Our findings suggest that the experience of power can be associated with fe elings of threat, especially when power is illegitimate, thereby orienting impression-formation processes toward information likely to maintain the ex isting social structure. We discuss our results in the context of current w ork on motivated social cognition, social identity, and legitimisation. Cop yright (C) 2000 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.