title: Effects of Power on Mental Rotation and Emotion Recognition in Women.
abstract: Based on construal-level theory (CLT) and its view of power as an instance of social distance, we predicted that high, relative to low power would enhance women's mental-rotation performance and impede their emotion-recognition performance. The predicted effects of power emerged both when it was manipulated via a recall priming task (Study 1) and environmental cues (Studies 2 and 3). Studies 3 and 4 found evidence for mediation by construal level of the effect of power on emotion recognition but not on mental rotation. We discuss potential mediating mechanisms for these effects based on both the social distance/construal level and the approach/inhibition views of power. We also discuss implications for optimizing performance on mental rotation and emotion recognition in everyday life.
authors.affiliation: Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Tali
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nissan
authors.affiliation: Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Oren
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shapira
authors.affiliation: Tel Aviv University, Israel niralib@tauex.tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Nira
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liberman
mesh_terms: D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D011939:Mental Recall; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012929:Psychological Distance
keywords: construal level; emotion recognition; mental rotation; power; social distance