1989 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 83-91
The present study was intended to investigate the characteristics of coalition formation processes in the competition for power precedence, focusing on the phase where motivation to defend status was dominant. Subjects, 90 male undergraduates, were divided into 30 groups of three persons each and were assigned to each rank order of power such as No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. Then they were confronted with the task to form two-person-coalition to obtain new resources for promoting their power ranks. Although No. 1 always prefered No. 3 as a coalition partner and No. 3 always prefered No. 1, No. 2 changed his preferable partner depending on the probability that he could recover in future if he lose his status. While high probability motivated No. 2 strongly to promote his rank and to select No. 3 as his coalition partner, low probability motivated No. 2 intensely to defend his status and to make large concessions to No. 1 to let No. 1 select him. Consequently, No. 1-No. 3-coalitions were formed more frequently on high probability condition, but No. 1-No. 2-coalitions more frequently on low probability condition.
