Experimental research suggests that high power and leadership result in the experience of more positive and less negative emotions. Extending these findings of experimental manipulations, we investigated relations between power and subjective well-being in a representative national survey. Defining power as the capability to administer resources or punishments, we inferred power from the number of people whom respondents supervise in their job. The results reflect a very small relation between this operationalization and individuals’ life and job satisfaction. The results suggest that prior experimental findings on the relation between power and satisfaction judgments cannot be applied directly to job situations.
