School of Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China.
Sichuan Research Center for Applied Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China.
PLoS One. 2022 Nov 4;17(11):e0277294. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277294. eCollection 2022.
Despite the popular notion that power motivations are associated with aggression and antisocial behavior, this study tested the hypothesis that activating power motivations can promote prosocial behavior. Because previous research has shown that public prosocial behavior is associate with reputation and status, this study examined how making prosocial decisions publicly or privately moderates the relationship between power motivations and prosocial behavior. One hundred and forty participants were randomly assigned to watch 20 min of either The Experiment (power motivation arousal) or a documentary called Beautiful China (control condition). A modified version of the dictator game was used to measure prosocial behavior. Participants were instructed to allocate an amount of money between themselves and a stranger girl in need, in the presence of the experimenter (the experimenter registers donation amount) or in the absence of the experimenter (the donation was put in a closed envelope). The results showed that individuals in the power motivation arousal group increased their help when their reputation was under scrutiny due to the experimenter's presence. In the private condition (experimenter is absent), power motivation is not related to prosocial behavior. The contrasting behavioral reactions resulting from the presence or absence of the experimenter are discussed in terms of reputation gain and competitive altruism.
尽管人们普遍认为权力动机与攻击性和反社会行为有关，但本研究检验了这样一个假设，即激活权力动机可以促进亲社会行为。由于先前的研究表明，公开的亲社会行为与声誉和地位有关，因此本研究考察了公开或私下做出亲社会决策如何调节权力动机与亲社会行为之间的关系。140 名参与者被随机分配观看 20 分钟的《实验》（权力动机激发）或一部名为《美丽中国》的纪录片（对照组）。修改后的独裁者游戏用于衡量亲社会行为。参与者被指示在自己和一个有需要的陌生女孩之间分配一笔钱，一种情况是在实验者面前（实验者记录捐赠金额），另一种情况是在没有实验者的情况下（捐赠放在一个封闭的信封里）。结果表明，由于实验者的存在，权力动机激发组的个体在其声誉受到审查时会增加帮助。在私人环境下（实验者不在场），权力动机与亲社会行为无关。根据声誉的获得和竞争利他主义，讨论了由于实验者的存在或不存在而导致的行为反应的差异。
