Investigation of the Effects of Norm Violation
On the Perception of Power Power governs our society. A powerful person is one that has authority over others. This sense of authority relieves them of the restrictions a person of lesser power might face, allowing them to make and break rules. The four studies conducted in “Breaking the Rules to Rise to Power: How Norm Violators Gain Power in the Eyes of Others” by Gerben A. Van Kleef, Astrid C. Homan, Catrin Finkenauer, Seval Gu ̈ndemir and Eftychia Stamkou, explores the concept of power and transgression. Such that if powerful people are expected to act against the norm, then acting against the norm should make people seem more powerful. The overall study focused on the relationship
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(Van Kleef et al., 2011)
The study examined the response of 25 females and 15 men with a mean age of 19.53 on two scales. The first scale was a 25-question questionnaire consisting of adjectives that described social impressions of power and norm violation, which was then rated on a scale from 1 to 7 with 1 being definitely not and 7 being definitely. The second scale asked participants to indicate the extent to which the power statements ‘‘This person is influential’’; ‘‘ . . . has a leadership position’’; ‘‘ . . . is in charge of subordinates’’; ‘‘ . . . enjoys considerable authority’’(Van Kleef et al., 2011), applied to the person depicted in the scenario.
Results and Discussions Participants rated the actor that took the cup of coffee from the personnel with a higher norm violation score than the actor that went to the bathroom. This indicated that they recognized that the behavior of the actor that took the coffee cup was wrong. Despite that, the participants rated that actor to be more powerful than the actor that went to the bathroom on both scales. This gives the first evidence that violating the norm influences the perception of power (Van Kleef et al., 2011).
Study 2: The Bookkeeper Study 2 employed a different type of norm violation to examine if the affects show in study 1 would repeat. One hundred and sixty-nine participants of unspecified age and sex were asked to read a scenario about a bookkeeper that follows the rule and one that does
Power is defined as “the possession of control or command over others; authority...” (Dictionary.com), and all people have power, whether they notice it or not. Though some employ their power for respectable reasons, often times power is not used in honorable ways. The matter of abuse of authority is prevalent in the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck illustrates that those who have power abuse it exceedingly often, as shown by Curley attacking countless others, including Lennie, a mentally disabled man, Curley’s wife mistreating the men of the ranch, and Curley’s wife making demeaning comments about Crooks, the African American stable buck.
These groundbreaking and controversial experiments indicate that social influence and constraints can make people comform to untruth or express cruelty. We will see how Asch and Milgram teach us that in a concrete situation with efficacious social constraints our moral sense can easily be trampled.
Each of the two experiments carried out by Milgram and Zimbardo had questionable ethics in their procedure. Ethics is defined as “Moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016). In psychology, ethics are moral guidelines when conducting social experiments such as these, so that the dignity of each participant is respected and preserved. This piece of work will evaluate the perceived ethics in Milgram’s experiment of human obedience to authority figures, and Zimbardo’s experiment of conformity to roles, and also provide an overall conclusion on whether or not these studies were ethical.
This is shown in many places throughout history and recreated in fiction. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night gives an example of abuse of power when Franek, the foreman of the depot Wiesel worked in, used his authority to bully Wiesel into giving him his gold crown by attacking his father. “This went on for two weeks. It was untenable. We had to give in. That day, Franek burst into savage laughter.” (pg 56) Franek knew that he could target Wiesel’s father without getting in trouble, so he was able to get what he wanted by the use of his power. Lord of the Flies by William Golding also shows how power corrupts people. When Jack became the chief of his own group, he and his accomplice, Roger, gained almost complete power over the boys on the island. They were able to do what they pleased, including hurting other people. “The chief snatched one of the few spears that were left and poked Sam in the ribs… The prodding became rhythmic. Sam yelled… Roger edged past the chief, only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder. The yelling ceased, and Samneric lay looking up in quiet terror. Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.” (pg 182) Jack and Roger used their power over other boys to scare SamnEric into joining their “tribe”. Similarly to Franek, Jack and Roger inflict physical harm upon others to get their way, proving that those in power become abusive of their lack of
Setting higher standards for those persons in positions of authority and power over the public establishes a prescribed set of standards for which the public expects to be upheld if authorities are to successfully exude their power and authority over the people. Williams and Arrigo state “Along with power comes an increased responsibility to use it in appropriate ways” (2012). As can be seen in current events, when officials abuse the authority by excessive use of force, kickbacks, or unethical or immoral behavior, the public loses trust and respect for the system as a whole, not just for the individual or individuals in question. An expectation of increased morality and value is expected in persons holding positions where the enforcement of laws, societal values and morals are rendered. Williams and Arrigo further state “…with the presence of increased power, discretion, and thus opportunity, the need for morality increases considerably”
Everyone has a desire for power; who would rather feel powerful rather than powerless? Individuals self-centered thoughts motivate them to behave manipulatively or over confidently due to their true power, or their false perception of power that they believe they have over others’ lives, and the future of their own lives, thus leading people to act on their emotions while disregarding others. Power has the ability to influence others in relationships, while impacting the way people interact. When people believe they have more power than they actually do, it leads to harmful and foolish actions. When someone has true power over another person, it causes the powerful person to have an altered attitude towards the other person.
The sociological analysis of norms through actions of other people that are influence by power are examined through Luke’s three stages of power. The three stages, decision
The seminar delivered to the class touched upon the central idea of oppressing others with differences, and subjecting the minority due to the lack of authority. An example of this rooting from the presentation connects to the theme of corruption within authority, as powerful figures most often earn their riches through a system involving corruption, collusion, as well as nepotism. The topic of the seminar circulated around infamous authoritative figures and their likelihood to take advantage of their dominance. This reaffirms the generalized notion that power comes with the ability to commit acts of prejudice to those below one’s level on the socioeconomic scale; as superiority, as well as prejudicial judgement based on stereotypes leads to injustice on a societal, national, and sometimes worldwide
This experiment found that when a group of two other people refused to obey the conditions of the experiment, then the third person would most likely do the same. It was found that, “The presence of others who are seen to disobey the authority figure reduces the level of obedience to 10%” (McLeod 588). A similar finding is noted in Solomon Asch’s “Opinions and Social Pressure”, where it was found that when someone is among their peers, they are more likely to conform to the group opinion. Asch acknowledges that social pressure plays a large role because the individual “must declare his judgments in public, before a majority which has also stated its position publicly” (Asch 599). This confirms the idea that an individual is more likely to conform when they are being judged by their
Abnormal behavior in one society appears normal in the other society (Nairne, 426). Deviance is weighed by the society’s reactions to the particular behavior, also it is measured by the society’s way of life so that it defines the unwelcoming behavior. It ignores the social order and some organizations believe, the reality in society.
A world of system designed to keep people in unjust and unequal positions is held in place by several interrelated expression of "power over": political power, economic power, physical force, and ideological power (Bishop, 1994: 36). So, we can say power is defined as a possession of control, authority or influence over others. In terms of power of dominant groups over subordinate groups, we define power as domination of one group of people over another in major important spheres of life. Power inequities have been in existence throughout the history of humanity and the ways of manifestation evolved from extreme overt oppression to subtle, covert oppression. Three major forms of power inequalities discussed in this paper are
In addition to power established because of organizational hierarchy or role, power is also established based on the level of influence or status one holds in an organization (Anichich, Fast, Halevy, Galinsky, 2016). “Status is the outcome of an evaluation of attributes that produce differences in respect and prominence” (Ketner et al, 2003 p. 266) They co-exists but are not co-dependent on each other. It’s possible to have status without power and power without status (Ketner et al, 2003). Whether one’s control comes through status or positional power, lauding control or significant influence over another inevitably leads to conflict.
This essay will aim to assess the key perspectives on power and domination by evaluating research and studies done by prominent sociologist within the field of power and domination. I shall start by defining what power actually is within the realm of politics. Power and domination have an important relationship in the social relations of modern society (p.11). Stewart (2005) cited Parsons (1967) on the definition power, where he defines power as a comprehensive capacity to secure the performance of binding obligations by units in an organisation where the obligations are legitimised and they share the same goals and there is presumption of enforcement by an individual. That is power is achieved when there is control by an individual over his or her subordinates and used as a tool to be used to achieve collective goals. Another important definition of power is by prolific sociologist Max Weber as he defined power as the chance of men to realise their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of other who are participation in the action (p.522 sociology themes and perspectives). So in other words weber defines power as the ability for one to get his/her own way even if everyone around you if opposed to your ideas and goals. So to achieve power one must make it happen through means of resistance from people opposed to you in order to have the ability to control people around you. Another notable sociologist Anthony Giddens suggests that the study of power is a
In the aforementioned studies, an asymmetry is found between the footbridge and the bystander cases which suggests that there is an independent reason to remove any asymmetry in the personal bystander and footbridge cases. The results showed that participants were aware of the difference between weak impermissibility and all-in impermissibility. In the first experiment, about 70% stated that is was not acceptable to violate a moral rule and all things considered both in the personal footbridge case. We can see a recognisable distinction in personal and moral cases, but this was not addressed in these experiments. In addition, a philosophical understanding tells us that when a rule is broken, it is wrong to go ahead with that action (e.g. Fried, 1978). It is clear then from both experiments that a difference between weak and all-in permissibility is not evident (Nichols & Mallon, 2005).
Leaders in power use their authority and power for personal gain and attaining of fame. In many given societies it can be argued that those in power uses their power and authority to manipulate the law and attain popularity from a particular group. It is clearly demonstrated and argued that they don 't apply the law equally and with justice instead given race or people are favored by that law and others punished using similar law. When those in power makes mistakes, it has always been hard for them to be prosecuted by law. In