On the Road to Power Showing Benevolence and Integrity Fuels Power Granting

Establishing power relations is often a democratic process in which people decide whom to grant social power (i.e., control over valued resources). But on which basis do people make this decision? When do they trust in a person’s responsible use of power—and how does the target’s behavior play into this decision? Here, we draw attention to the potential interplay between two behavioral ingredients—benevolence and integrity—borrowed from approaches on interpersonal trust. We argue that people more willingly grant power to others who (a) show benevolence (i.e., intentions to support shared, not selfish, interests) and can thus be trusted to use power responsibly, and particularly so (b) when others also show integrity (i.e., alignment between intentions and actions, or “practicing what one preaches”). Four studies (N = 1,151; Western samples; 2018–2021) supported this interplay of benevolence and integrity, highlighting when and why people willingly hand over power to someone. These findings extend prior approaches to leader emergence through a novel focus on the interplay between two central ingredients to power granting, which reveals that benevolence and integrity by themselves are not sufficient. Rather, the road to power is paved with benevolent intentions carried out with integrity.