Does Power Make Us Less Generous?

Can how powerful we feel at a given moment affect how much money we're willing to spend on behalf of someone else? Apparently so, according to researchers at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. They told a group of people to recall a time when they either had or lacked power and then asked them to buy chocolates, either for themselves or somebody else of their choosing. They found that "low-power" people—those experiencing a state of powerlessness—bought more than twice as much chocolate for someone else than for themselves, while "high-power" people—those experiencing a state of power—bought much more chocolate for themselves than for the other person.

In another experiment, the researchers asked one group of people to bid on a T-shirt and mug for themselves and another group to bid on the items for somebody else. The effect was the same. When people were bidding for themselves, high-power people bid $12.08 on average, while low-power people bid $6.49. But when people were bidding on the items for someone else, the reverse effect occurred: On average, the low-power people bid $10.81 on average, while the high-power participants bid $7.10.

What is going on here? Derek Rucker, who worked on the research, says that:

two different ideas—self-importance and dependence on others—statistically mediate the spending effects we see. Low-power people spend more on others because they depend on others. High-power people spend more on themselves because they view themselves as more important.

But get this: Even though the high-power people spent more on themselves throughout a series of experiments, they reported being happier when they spent money on someone else.