Influence of sense of power on epidemic control policy compliance

Incidences of noncompliance with COVID-19 prevention and control policies have occurred worldwide, increasing the risk to public safety and making epidemic control more difficult. We applied the approach–inhibition theory of power perception to investigate the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between individuals' power perception and their prevention and control policy compliance. This study collected data from 303 participants in 45 counties (districts) spanning one province in China. Results show that individuals' sense of power was negatively related to their prevention and control policy compliance, with risk perception mediating and group policy control moderating this relationship. The findings provide a reference for assessing the effectiveness and relevance of government epidemic prevention and control. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Power and gender

This study investigates metaphors used in Mergers and Acquisitions texts in a Chinese financial newspaper, The 21st Century Business Herald. Based on corpus data, we approach the rhetorical motive and persuasive power hidden behind metaphors from the perspective of rhetorical criticism. The study found four major metaphors: war, marriage, struggle and hunting, and game, that are used in the financial texts. The war metaphor is the most common variety, followed by the marriage metaphor, suggesting the role of power perception and gender perception in the representation of financial affairs.

Do Preschoolers Align Their Preferences With Those of a Powerful Individual?

Very early on, children understand the hierarchical dimension of the social environment and use a variety of cues to guess who has more power in an interaction. A crucial aspect of power perception lies in the evaluation of high-power and low-power individuals. The current study examined the evaluation of power by preschoolers through social influence. Past research has shown that preschoolers take social category information into account when expressing their preferences. In particular, they tend align their preferences with those of same-gender and same-age individuals. In the current study, 4- and 5-year-old children were presented with a power interaction between two children through body postures and were asked whether they would prefer the same items as those preferred by the high-power child or those preferred by the low-power child. Overall, the participants did not choose the items preferred by the high-power child significantly more often than those preferred by the low-power child. However, unexpected gender effects were found and indicated that the power asymmetry influenced more male than female participants. Indeed, when they saw a power interaction between two boys (Experiments 1 and 2), male participants aligned their choices with those of the high-power boy more than with those of the low-power boy. However, when male participants saw an interaction between two girls (Experiment 3), an opposite pattern was observed: they aligned their choices with those of the low-power girl more than with those of the high-power girl. In contrast, in the three experiments, there were approximately as many girls who aligned their preferences with those of the high-power child as there were girls who aligned their preferences with those of the low-power child. The current study reveals the importance of taking gender into account, both at the level of participants and stimuli, in the evaluation of power by preschoolers.

Peter Pan Syndrome “Men Who Don’t Grow”: Developing a Scale

Peter Pan Syndrome is a concept that used to characterize the “never-growing” men who have reached an adult age, but cannot face their adult sensations and responsibilities. Individuals with Peter Pan Syndrome have difficulties in social and professional relationships because of their irresponsible behaviors and narcissistic properties. The purpose of this study is to develop a scale in order to measure the level of Peter Pen Syndrome in male individuals. In accordance with this purpose, the draft form was sent to experts to get their feedback, and some statements have been revised in accordance with the feedback. The Peter Pan Syndrome Scale is a twenty-two-item self-report measurement, and each item is evaluated on five-point Likert Type scale. Construct validity of the scale was determined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a three-factor model was created, namely, “Escape from Responsibility”, “Power Perception,” and “Never Growing Child”. EFA results shows that these three factors were describing 47.05% of the variance. Results of EFA were verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The internal consistency coefficient and the confidence coefficient of the split-half were used to determine the reliability of the scale. The Cronbach’s alpha value was found to be 0.88 for the total scale.

Cultural Collectivism and Tightness Moderate Responses to Norm Violators: Effects on Power Perception, Moral Emotions, and Leader Support

Responses to norm violators are poorly understood. On one hand, norm violators are perceived as powerful, which may help them to get ahead. On the other hand, norm violators evoke moral outrage, which may frustrate their upward social mobility. We addressed this paradox by considering the role of culture. Collectivistic cultures value group harmony and tight cultures value social order. We therefore hypothesized that collectivism and tightness moderate reactions to norm violators. We presented 2,369 participants in 19 countries with a norm violation or a norm adherence scenario. In individualistic cultures, norm violators were considered more powerful than norm abiders and evoked less moral outrage, whereas in collectivistic cultures, norm violators were considered less powerful and evoked more moral outrage. Moreover, respondents in tighter cultures expressed a stronger preference for norm followers as leaders. Cultural values thus influence responses to norm violators, which may have downstream consequences for violators’ hierarchical positions.