Situational Power and Interpersonal Dominance Facilitate Bias and Inequality

Abstract

A model is proposed that describes interpersonal phenomena that maintain inter-group hierarchies and conflict. Situational control and interpersonal dominance are identified as conditions that promote motives to stereotype, leading to cognitive and judgment biases that cumulatively reinforce the status quo. Three general hypotheses are derived from the model. First, powerholders are predicted to use attention strategies that favor stereotype maintenance, stereotyping subordinates by default (ignoring counterstereotypic information) and by design (increasing attention to stereotypic information). Second, high-dominance perceivers are predicted to respond with the same cognitive biases as people with situational power. Finally, power and dominance are predicted independently to facilitate bias in explicit judgments. Results from our research program support the hypotheses. Implications for future change are discussed.

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