LONDON, April 26 (UPI) -- People can be content with either power or choice -- or both -- but having neither makes them dissatisfied, a team of British, French and U.S. researchers say.
M. Ena Inesi and Simona Botti of London Business School, David Dubois of HEC Paris and Derek D. Rucker and Adam D. Galinsky, both of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, conducted a series of experiments that examined whether lacking one source of control, or power, would trigger a greater need for the other choice.
In one experiment, participants read a description of a boss or an employee and had them think about how they would feel in that role. Some were made to feel powerful and some were made to feel powerless. The participants were told they could buy eyeglasses or ice cream from a store that had three options or a store that had 15 options.
People were willing to go through great lengths such as drive farther or wait longer to go to the store with more options -- those lacking power were thirsty for choice.
In another experiments, people deprived of choice had a thirst for power.
The discovery that power and choice are interchangeable can be useful in the workplace.
"You can make that seemingly powerless persons feel better about their job and their duties by giving them some choice," the researchers say in a statement.
The findings are published in Psychological Science.
