Luo, Wei;
(2025)
The Effects of Expertise on Strategies to Ascend
Social Hierarchies.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
People are generally motivated to acquire power, but it is not yet clear what affects people’s strategies of ascending a power hierarchy. While previous research has largely focused on different hierarchy-ascending strategies as results of personal preference, the current research explores their situational determinants. In particular, this research investigates whether expertise enhances power motivation and aggressive, competitive, assertive and agentic behaviours aimed to pursue power. Eight pre-registered online experiments explored how relative expertise affects hierarchy-ascending behaviours. Expertise was manipulated through actual training (Studies 1-3), a retrospective writing exercise (Study 4), job simulations (Studies 5-7), and false feedback on a quiz (Study 8). Hierarchy-ascending strategies were measured using economic games (Studies 1-3), resource distribution tasks (Studies 4-5), self-report measures (Studies 6-8), and direct behavioural observations in an online chatroom (Study 8). In seven of the eight studies, participants reported or displayed more aggressive, competitive, assertive and agentic behaviours in the high-expertise condition compared to the low-expertise condition; the effect could be explained by high perceived ease of ascending and strong power motivation in the high-expertise condition. Competition and trait dominance were examined as potential moderators. While competition had a main effect, trait dominance interacted with expertise to further influence hierarchy-ascending strategies. This research is the first to investigate how expertise affects individuals’ propensity of ascending in power hierarchies through regulating hierarchy-ascending motivation and strategies. It highlights the role of individual actors in shaping hierarchical dynamics, particularly in reinforcing the existing social hierarchies.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The Effects of Expertise on Strategies to Ascend Social Hierarchies |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Expertise, social power, aggression, competition, communication |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209979 |
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