Rutter and her colleagues first measured the participants' trait power, meaning how powerful they feel on a day-to-day basis by asking questions about their feelings of control in life and influence over others.
In the first study, volunteers were asked how close they felt to various people in their lives, such as neighbours, parents, bosses and friends.
In the second study, the participants were assigned to actually interact online with another person.
Both studies found that the more powerful people felt, the closer they felt to others.
The powerful people also felt less stressed about getting their cover letters evaluated.
