The Monetary Effect of Power: How Perception of Power Affects Monetary Value Judgments in China and US

Previous research has found a positive correlation between the perception of power and the perception of a number of social attributes (e.g., attractiveness, height, personality traits), but most of the studies were conducted in the US, and none has investigated the relationship between power perception and monetary value judgments. The current study found dramatic differences between Americans and Chinese on value estimations; the Chinese seem to perceive much higher monetary values for all items people found or lost, regardless of the power status of the protagonists than Americans, controlling for inflation and currency exchange rates. We also found interesting power by culture interactions that Chinese were more likely to judge the items found by powerful people to be more valuable than the ones found by less powerful people, while Americans were more likely to judge the items found by less powerful people to be more valuable than the powerful people. In addition, American participants were more likely to judge the items loss by powerful people to be more valuable than by less powerful people. These differences may be caused by culturally different attitudes toward power status. Implications for understanding the relationship between physical reality and psychological reality as well as the scope of cultural differences are discussed.