“Power to Reinforce” as a Determinant of Communication

Abstract

“Power to reinforce” was defined as the conditional probability of completing an attempt to reward another person and was manipulated by controlling the content of messages without the knowledge of the sender. To explore its effects on communication, 5 different group patterns of power were investigated. Five-man groups passed 100 messages at a fixed rate in a Bavelas apparatus with all channels open. Ss were free only to choose to whom to send a message. The source of messages received was identified by color. In all structures the frequency of messages received increased monotonically with the receiver's power to reinforce.