Power Reshapes the Mental Representation of Social Hierarchy

Social hierarchy represents a ubiquitous principle of social organization, often intuitively conceptualized as a pyramidal structure. The present study investigated whether subjective power can reshape this mental representation, thereby attenuating perceived psychological distance between social classes. Using eye-tracking technology and time-series representational similarity analysis, we measured participants’ gaze patterns toward stimuli denoting high- and low-status individuals under different power states. Results revealed a robust upward gaze bias toward high-status targets in the control condition, consistent with a pyramid-like representation in which upper classes occupy the apex and lower classes the base. This bias was amplified in the powerless condition but significantly attenuated in the powerful condition, suggesting that subjective power transforms the internalized hierarchy into a more egalitarian configuration, wherein social classes are perceived as more equivalent. Furthermore, power states systematically modulated horizontal gaze position and pupil diameter. These findings provide novel insights into how subjective power dynamically reshapes the representation of social hierarchy and point to new theoretical avenues for reducing perceived inequality at the psychological level.