Reply To Wu And Wilkes: Power, Whether Situational Or Durable, Decreases Both Relational And Generalized Trust

In our article (1), we present evidence that individuals low in power are more trusting than those high in power. In a letter to the editor, Wu and Wilkes argue that our finding is “subject to two caveats about the kind of power and trust being considered” (2). Although refinements of our theory are welcome, we have reservations about the caveats brought forward. Wu and Wilkes’ (2) first objection is that the negative power–trust effect might flip once power is conceptualized as a durable (rather than situational) property. We expect that individuals endowed with durable power would still trust less (in relative terms) …