Gender, Power, and Autobiographical Memory

This study explores the influence of gender and power on autobiographical memory following a brief social interaction. The hypothesis stated that gender and social role (that of leaders versus helpers) would interact in predicting the affective tone and themes (agency and communion) of an autobiographical memory for previous leadership experiences. This was examined by investigating the emotional quality and content of personal memories of a power experience described by 150 undergraduates after a transient interaction. The participants, divided into pairs, completed a 15-minute discussion task. In this interaction relative power was manipulated by randomly assigning participants to the role of either a leader or a helper. The results partially supported the hypothesis, showing that participants of both sexes randomly assigned to a subordinate position used more words pertaining to communal themes, fewer communication words, and shame words more frequently than participants assigned to a leadership role