Powerful People are Less Likely to be Understanding When Mistakes are Made

Those with privilege are less aware of constraints others face and are more likely to punish subordinates, according to new UC San Diego research. Those with power, such as the wealthy are more likely to blame others for having shortcomings and they are also less troubled by reports of inequality, according to recent research from the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management. The study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science defines power as control over valuable resources. The paper finds that people in positions of power are more likely to adopt a "choice-mindset," which means that although they have more choices (the definition of power in many cases) they still see others with less power as having lots of choice, regardless of their situation. Consequently, high-power individuals are more likely to blame others if they perform poorly and they are also more likely to punish them. "Being in a choice-mindset changes how individuals think, feel and behave," said Yidan Yin, the first author of the paper and recent PhD graduate from the Rady School. "Compared to low-power people, high-power people are less likely to be aware of others' constraints. As a result they assign more blame when people make mistakes or have shortcomings. Thus, they see the current hierarchy as more justified." The results from the research were derived from three different studies the authors conducted to replicate the findings in different settings. Research findings hold up in three robust study settings