How power affects our faith in people
Three of the top four candidates in the presidential campaign- Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina are all powerful people, either as a billionaire in entertainment and real estate, a neurosurgeon or a former corporate chief executive officer. Many people place trust in these powerful candidates, and would vote for them. However, from our discussion in class, powerful people generally have several other relationships, which would make them less trustworthy, because they can afford to lose a connection. This rationale is not seen in real life.
We would expect that people would not like to place blind trust in people with large amounts of power. This is because they usually have many options, and there is more likelihood of being betrayed by the person in power. Research shows that in real life, the opposite takes place. That is, low-power negotiators see their high-power partners as more trustworthy and people in high-power are less trusting.
This is because, people in low power positions want to see their partner as trustworthy to avoid the anxiety related to their feelings of dependance. However, people in high power have many backup options, and view their relationships more fairly. This blind faith is called “motivated cognition”.
These findings can be applied to the public’s institutional trust in powerful bodies, like the government. Trust in local politicians with whom people have interpersonal interactions is generally found to be high. It has also been shown that many power holders are admired and seen in a positive light. Although it was shown that the trust in the federal government is low, this can be because these decision makers are anonymous and there is a large social distance.
This shows why societies with large differences in power can be functioning and enduring. In a world where people act how we would expect them to – where people with low power do not place trust in power holders, stability and reduced conflict may not be achievable.