The impact of power on implicit attitudes toward violence: empathy as a mediator and moderator

Attitudes toward violence can be assessed using both explicit self-report measures and implicit paradigms. However, little is known about how situational power influences such implicit evaluations and how empathy shapes this process. Power has been identified as a potential factor influencing implicit attitudes toward violence, while empathy may serve as a protective buffer. This study aimed to examine how different forms of power affect implicit attitudes toward violence and to clarify the mediating and moderating roles of empathy.

Two experimental studies were conducted. In Study 1, explicit power was primed through a recall task. Participants' state empathy and implicit attitudes toward violence were subsequently measured. In Study 2, implicit power was primed using a conceptual word-search task, and trait empathy was assessed as a potential moderator. Both studies utilized the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit violent attitudes.

In Study 1, participants primed with a high sense of power exhibited significantly lower state empathy, which was associated with less negative implicit evaluations of violence. In Study 2, trait empathy moderated the relationship between power and implicit evaluations of violence: lower levels of trait empathy were associated with less negative implicit evaluations of violence under power priming.

These findings suggest that both explicit and implicit power priming are associated with shifts in implicitly measured evaluations of violence, and that empathy plays a key regulatory role. Specifically, state empathy showed a significant indirect effect in Experiment 1, whereas trait empathy functioned as a boundary condition in Experiment 2. These findings point to different roles of empathy in the association between power priming and implicitly measured evaluations of violence, and suggest potential implications for understanding how power relates to attitudes toward violence.