Power (Social and Political) - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org  ## Metadata - Author: **en.wikipedia.org** - Full Title: Power (Social and Political) - Wikipedia - Category: #articles - Tags: #game-theory #humans - URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)#Five_bases_of_power ## Highlights - In rational choice theory, human individuals or groups can be modelled as 'actors' who choose from a 'choice set' of possible actions in order to try to achieve desired outcomes. An actor's 'incentive structure' comprises (its beliefs about) the costs associated with different actions in the choice set, and the likelihoods that different actions will lead to desired outcomes. In this setting we can differentiate between: outcome power – the ability of an actor to bring about or help bring about outcomes; social power – the ability of an actor to change the incentive structures of other actors in order to bring about outcomes. This framework can be used to model a wide range of social interactions where actors have the ability to exert power over others. For example, a 'powerful' actor can take options away from another's choice set; can change the relative costs of actions; can change the likelihood that a given action will lead to a given outcome; or might simply change the other's beliefs about its incentive structure.