Seeing Danger Instead of Opportunity: Does Powerlessness Enhance Stimulus-Driven Attention Allocation Towards Threat-Related Stimuli?

An elevated feeling of power has repeatedly been shown to lead to superior goal pursuit and attainment due to increased goal-directed attention allocation. In the wake of this research, powerlessness has often been assumed to impair goal-directed attention allocation or even to lead to less selective attention allocation overall. The present research proposes that this picture of the way powerlessness influences attention allocation is incomplete. It is hypothesized that instead of an overall reduction of selective attention allocation, powerlessness causes an increase in stimulus-driven allocation towards threat. Furthermore, powerlessness should lead to improved goal pursuit and attainment in a situation that requires stimulus-driven attention allocation. Three studies using behavioral and neural indicators of stimulus-driven attention allocation towards threat yielded only partial support for these hypotheses.Study 1, using a Dot Probe Paradigm, confirmed our expectation that participants in a powerlessness condition possessed increased stimulus-driven attention allocation towards threat compared to participants in a high power condition. Study 2 used a similar dot probe task as Study 1 but additionally assessed participants’ N2pc amplitude as a neural marker of stimulus-driven attention allocation. A powerlessness condition was compared to a neutral control condition, but the finding of Study 1 could not be replicated. Study 3 tested the hypothesized improved performance of powerless individuals in a task requiring stimulus-driven attention allocation towards threat. Using a visual search paradigm, no effect of the powerlessness condition (as compared to a high power condition) was found. Implications and possible reasons for the inconclusive findings are discussed.