| Are people with a high sense of power more dishonest than those with low power? Anecdotes from various fields of society show that there is a certain relationship between the sense of power and dishonesty or unethical behavior.This article focuses on the problem in this study of moral psychology-dishonesty,and how Sense of Power affects the individual’s dishonesty.As one of the core factors of social interaction,the sense of power is also an important psychological state of the individual,which affects the individual’s cognition,emotion and decision.Based on this,the current study explores how power affects individual dishonesty,and introduces two variables of perspectivetaking and recipient,trying to explore the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions of the sense of power and dishonesty.The current study included two studies.The main purpose of Study1 is to verify the mediating role of perspective-taking between power and dishonesty.A total of 232 students were enrolled in the university.Using the recall task method to manipulate the individual’s sense of power,and then measured the level of opinion selection and dishonesty through the scale.Analyzing the effective questionnaires collected,it is found that after excluding the influence of irrelevant variables,the sense of power can increase dishonest,and this process is dominated by perspective-taking: the high sense of power may reduce perspective-taking and individual dishonesty.The study2 is divided into three sub-studies that continue to examine that recipient moderate the effect of power on dishonesty:(1)Study 2A,with the incumbent as the participant,using the online questionnaire survey to explore the relationship between power and dishonesty in the organizational context,and the role of the recipient.The results show that there is a significant correlation between the sense of power and dishonesty.The recipient can significantly predict dishonesty,and the interaction between power and recipient is significant.Further simple effect test results show that in the other-beneficial condition,the high-power group.The dishonesty was significantly lower than the low-power group,but between the groups in the context of their self-beneficial condition,here was no significant difference.Based on this result,Research 2B was conducted.(2)Study 2B,using the experimental design of 3(high-power group vs low-power group vs control group)× 2(recipient: self-beneficial vs other-beneficial),research designed an experimental situation and manipulate the power by means of class role play.Observing how different power group participants make choices in the self-beneficial and other-beneficial condition.The results of the study show that under the condition of otherbeneficial,the dishonesty of the high-power group is significantly lower than that of the low-power group;in the case of their self-beneficial,the dishonesty of the high-power group is significantly higher than the low-power group.(3)Study 2C in order to increase the diversity of research results,no longer based on the hypothesis scenario,but in the real lie situation,to examine whether the recipient still affects the dishonesty of the power individual.The results of the study are consistent with the results of Study 2B.Individuals with higher powers and lower power may be both arranged to lie,but the purpose of lie may be different.High-power individuals may lie,more likely to benefit themselves.And low-power individuals may lie,more likely to help others.Based on the above research,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)In general,a high sense of power can reduce an individual’s perspective-taking and thus increase dishonesty.In contrast,a low sense of power can increase an individual’s perspective-taking,thereby reducing individual dishonesty.The perspective-taking plays a role of part mediating.(2)The recipient significantly moderates the relationship between power and dishonesty.In the self-beneficial condition,high-power individuals are more likely to commit dishonesty;in the other-beneficial condition,low-power individuals are more likely to commit dishonesty. |
