In the fan study, all the subjects were first primed in the ways I described earlier to feel either powerful or powerless.32 While 69 percent of the powerful participants redirected or turned off that annoying fan, only 42 percent of the powerless participants did. The rest just sat there and took it. After all, no one told them they could touch the fan. In the absence of power, they needed the permission of someone with authority to act.
