Dominance Through the Lens of a Competitive Worldview: The Role of Relationship Expectancies

Abstract: We propose that people are less likely to behave dominantly when they expect dominance to incur greater relationship costs, an expectancy informed by a general view of the social world as a “competitive jungle.” We show that those with a competitive worldview expect dominance to incur less relationship harm and that, in turn, they are more likely to behave dominantly. Study 1 (N = 275) provides internal and discriminant validity for our claims, over and above alternative explanations of dominance. Study 2 (N = 289) offers external validity by having participants estimate the relationship impact of employee-recounted real-world managerial dominance. Study 3 (N = 595) provides behavioral evidence by assigning participants to manager and employee roles in a novel behavioral paradigm. It also sheds light on errors in expectancies. Overall, we provide the first evidence that competitive worldview predicts relationship expectancies which, in turn, shape dominant strategies and behavior.

Keywords: relationship expectancies; competitive worldview; dominant behavior.