Dissidents and God-Talk in the Johannine Epistles

Peer reviewe

Highly identified power‐holders feel responsible: The interplay between social identification and social power within groups

Power relations affect dynamics within groups. Power‐holders’ decisions not only determine their personal outcomes, but also the outcomes of others in the group that they control. Yet, power‐holders often tend to overlook this responsibility to take care of collective interests. The present research investigated how social identification – with the group to which both the powerful and the powerless belong – alters perceived responsibility among power‐holders (and the powerless). Combining research on social power and social identity, we argue that power‐holders perceive more responsibility than the powerless when strongly (rather than when weakly) identifying with the group. A study among leaders and an experiment supported this, highlighting that although power‐holders are often primarily concerned about personal outcomes, they do feel responsible for considering others’ interests when these others are included in the (social) self.Social decision makin