Cooperation and Coercion as Pathways to Social Power in Adolescents

The study, conducted by Tristan Chaderton Bowman and colleagues, involved 458 adolescents aged 14 to 18 from a high school in southern Ontario (1). Students completed surveys on electronic tablets, and their responses were analyzed to understand how different strategies affect social power. The researchers measured three 'power-enhancing processes,' including coercive strategies, cooperative strategies, and peer-valued characteristics (1). [1]

Coercion was measured using items that asked students to identify peers who force, threaten, or trick others to get their way (1). Cooperation was assessed through three items about helping, cooperating, leading fairly, and being kind (1). Peer-valued characteristics were measured with six items, including being good-looking, good at sports, academically successful, funny, having cool possessions, and being tough in a fight (1). [1]

The researchers found that coercive strategies were strongly associated with dominance, meaning adolescents who were seen as threatening or coercive were more likely to be viewed as getting their way and influencing others (1). Coercion was also moderately associated with alliances and weakly associated with prestige (1). Cooperation was found to be an important pathway to power, with adolescents who were seen as kind, helpful, or fair leaders receiving more friendship and alliance nominations (1). [1]

The study, conducted by Tristan Chaderton Bowman and colleagues, involved 458 adolescents aged 14 to 18 from a high school in southern Ontario (1). Coercion was measured using items that asked students to identify peers who force, threaten, or trick others to get their way (1). The researchers found that coercive strategies were strongly associated with dominance, meaning adolescents who were seen as threatening or coercive were more likely to be viewed as getting their way and influencing others (1). [1]

Cooperation was also an important pathway to power. Adolescents who were seen as kind, helpful, cooperative, and fair leaders received more friendship and alliance nominations, and they were also more likely to be viewed as prestigious (1). This suggests that cooperation can lead to social power through admiration and respect from peers rather than through intimidation or coercion (1). [1]

Peer-valued characteristics were linked to both prestige and dominance, suggesting that admired traits can support multiple kinds of social influence (1). Cooperation was especially strongly related to friendship nominations when adolescents also had more peer-valued characteristics (1). This highlights the complex interplay between different strategies in the development of social power among adolescents (1). [1]

A study of Ontario high school students found that adolescents can gain social power through cooperation, admired traits, friendships, and alliances, according to research published in Evolutionary Psychological Science (1). The researchers measured three 'power-enhancing processes,' including coercive strategies, cooperative strategies, and peer-valued characteristics (1). The study involved 458 adolescents aged 14 to 18 from a high school in southern Ontario (1). [1]

Cooperation was measured with three items about helping, cooperating, leading fairly, and being kind (1). The researchers found that different strategies were linked to different forms of adolescent power. Cooperation was also an important pathway to power. Peer-valued characteristics were linked to both prestige and dominance, suggesting that admired traits can support multiple kinds of social influence (1). [1]

The researchers found that cooperation was especially strongly related to friendship nominations when adolescents also had more peer-valued characteristics (1). Cooperation was also more strongly related to alliances when coercion was low, suggesting that cooperative and coercive strategies did not combine into a stronger 'best of both worlds' route to alliance-building (1). [1]

Sources

PsyPost: Relationships

Prepared with AI assistance from the cited sources.