title: Social power and approach-related neural activity.
abstract: It has been argued that power activates a general tendency to approach whereas powerlessness activates a tendency to inhibit. The assumption is that elevated power involves reward-rich environments, freedom and, as a consequence, triggers an approach-related motivational orientation and attention to rewards. In contrast, reduced power is associated with increased threat, punishment and social constraint and thereby activates inhibition-related motivation. Moreover, approach motivation has been found to be associated with increased relative left-sided frontal brain activity, while withdrawal motivation has been associated with increased right sided activations. We measured EEG activity while subjects engaged in a task priming either high or low social power. Results show that high social power is indeed associated with greater left-frontal brain activity compared to low social power, providing the first neural evidence for the theory that high power is associated with approach-related motivation. We propose a framework accounting for differences in both approach motivation and goal-directed behaviour associated with different levels of power.
authors.affiliation: P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands. maarten@boksem.nl
authors.forename: Maarten A S
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Boksem
authors.forename: Ruud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Smolders
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: De Cremer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D058256:Brain Waves / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult