14 DAY TRIAL // Is your boss a butt-head? In this case, don't try to change this, at least as long as he/she feels powerful, as revealed by a new research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"Powerful people have confidence in what they are thinking. Whether their thoughts are positive or negative toward an idea, that position is going to be hard to change," said co-author Richard Petty, professor of psychology at Ohio State University. To make them consider new ideas, they must be made to feel less powerful.
"If you temporarily make a powerful person feel less powerful, you have a better chance of getting them to pay attention," said lead author Pablo Bri?ol, a social psychologist at the Universidad Aut?noma de Madrid in Spain.
Volunteers were involved in two supposedly separate experiments. First, in pair of students, one played the role of a boss and the other impersonated an employee. The subjects received a fake advertisement for a mobile phone. Half of the subjects received advertisements with weak arguments for getting the phone (like that it had a broad currency converter), while the others came with strong arguments (it could be recharged in only 5 minutes).
When the test was made before viewing the phone advertisement, the "bosses" were more likely than the "employees" to rate the phone similarly, no matter the arguments.
"The strength of the argument made no difference to those who played the boss - they obviously weren't paying attention when they felt powerful. Those who played the employee, who were made to feel powerless, paid a lot more attention to the arguments. They weren't as confident in their own initial beliefs and weighed the arguments more carefully," said Petty. In the other test, the subjects first read the advertisements and wrote down their opinions while reading it. After that, the same subjects played the "boss-employee" roles and went back to rate the phones. In this case, the "bosses" took more in consideration the quality of the arguments in the advertisements, compared to the "employees"
"When power was experienced after the ads had been processed, it gave people confidence in their most recent thoughts, so if they read strong arguments, they rated the phones more favorably. If they read weak arguments, they were much more negative toward the phone. Those who were feeling less power weren't as confident about the validity of their thoughts to the ads, so the strength of the arguments didn't matter as much," said Petty.
"What this all means is that it matters when people are feeling powerful - before or after they receive a persuasive message. If the message comes right after their power is made relevant to them, then powerful people will be difficult to persuade because they are confident in their existing opinions. However, if people can be made to feel powerful right after a strong persuasive message, attitude change is more likely because powerful individuals will feel confident in the positive thoughts they generate to the message," he added.
The researchers say that, if you have strong arguments for getting a raise, do not approach the boss in her office, where she/he feels powerfully, but in a lunch room or a place that does not remember them about who's got the power. But if, in the end, his/her office remains the only option, you have to shake his/her confidence somehow. But after exposing your strong argument, it is better to remind him/her he/she is the boss.
"Our research shows that power makes people more confident in their beliefs, but power is only one thing that affects confidence. Try to bring up something that the boss doesn't know, something that makes him less certain and that tempers his confidence. You want to sow all your arguments when the boss is not thinking of his power, and after you make a good case, then remind your boss of his power. Then he will be more confident in his own evaluation of what you say. As long as you make good arguments, he will be more likely to be persuaded," said Petty.
"The research casts doubt on the classic assertion that power corrupts people and leads them to negative actions. Instead, what power does is make people more likely to unquestionably believe in their own thoughts and act on them. A lot of people may have a momentary thought about doing something bad, but they don't do it because they can inhibit themselves. A powerful person is more likely to follow through on the negative thoughts. Powerful people are more likely to act on what they are thinking - good or bad - without second guessing themselves," he added.