French & Raven Six Forms of Social Power

The Reality
Power Model

In 1959, social psychologists John R. P. French Jr. and Bertram H. Raven introduced a model that explains how one person can influence another. They identified five forms of social power: Legitimate Power, Reward Power, Coercive Power, Expert Power, and Referent Power. Raven later added Informational Power as a sixth form. Together, these powers show how authority, benefits, consequences, trusted judgment, relationships, and information can change what someone believes or does.

The Framework

The Six Forms of Power

01 · Role

Legitimate Power

Legitimate Power comes from a recognized right to make a decision or expect an obligation to be honored. An official position, power granted by the game, an agreement, or a responsibility can give a player authority that others accept.

02 · Benefit

Reward Power

Reward Power comes from having something another player values. Offers of safety, protection, votes, information, or future help can influence another player to cooperate or change a decision.

03 · Consequence

Coercive Power

Coercive Power comes from the ability to create a consequence another player wants to avoid. A credible threat of nomination, exposure, exclusion, or retaliation can influence someone to change their behavior.

04 · Judgment

Expert Power

Expert Power comes from judgment that other players trust. When someone follows a player’s advice because they believe that player understands the game, Expert Power is shaping the decision.

05 · Relationship

Referent Power

Referent Power comes from relationships. Trust, loyalty, admiration, or personal attachment can influence someone to share information, offer protection, keep a promise, or accept a risk for another player.

06 · Information

Informational Power

Informational Power comes from information or reasoning that changes another player’s understanding. A fact, warning, explanation, secret, or argument can influence how someone sees the game and what they choose to do.

How RPM Tracks Power in Reality Shows

Reality-show players use these forms of power when they make deals, offer protection, warn of consequences, give advice, build trust, and control information. An HOH may use Legitimate Power to shape the week, while another player uses Reward Power to trade safety for a vote. A trusted ally may rely on Referent Power, and a strong strategist may use Expert or Informational Power to change the target. Each form gives a player leverage when it causes someone else to listen, cooperate, or change a decision.

The Reality Power Model (RPM) is a season-long data gathering project that follows how players use these six forms of power over the course of a season. It tracks when a player gains, uses, strengthens, loses, or fails to convert power, along with the responses and outcomes that follow. By comparing these changes from episode to episode, RPM shows how each player’s influence develops as relationships, roles, information, and game conditions change.

From Action to Response

Analyzing Power Moves

RPM follows the same basic questions whenever a player tries to influence someone:

What did the player do?
What did the player ask, promise, reveal, warn, offer, or decide?
Who responded?
Which player listened, refused, agreed, protected someone, changed a plan, or made a different choice?
What changed?
Did the interaction affect a vote, target, relationship, alliance, nomination, or future plan?
Which power explains the response?
Did the influence come from authority, a benefit, a consequence, trusted judgment, a relationship, or information?
How far did the influence reach?
Did it work with one person, several players, or an important part of the house? Who resisted it?

Example: Consider an HOH who warns that a player could become the replacement nominee. The HOH’s right to make the nomination is Legitimate Power. If the warning causes the player to change a vote, the same interaction may also show Coercive Power. If the player refuses, the attempt still happened. The refusal simply shows where the HOH’s influence stopped.

Scores Over Time

How the Power Ratings Work

At each episode cutoff, RPM gives every active player a rating from 1 to 4 for each of the six powers.

1Little or no clear evidence

2Limited influence in a role, relationship, or situation

3Repeated or important influence

4Strong influence across major decisions or relationships

Outside of a clearly defined change in formal authority, one attempt or isolated event does not change a power rating. RPM must observe and validate multiple separate examples showing that the power repeatedly influences other players. Those examples must form a consistent pattern strong enough to move the player into a different rating level. A single attempt may still be recorded, but it does not justify a rating change by itself.

The six ratings are added together to create the player’s Total Power Score. The lowest possible total is 6. The highest is 24.

The score shows how much influence the player has demonstrated by that episode’s evidence cutoff. It is a snapshot of the game at that moment.

A player’s rank can change even when the player’s score stays the same. That can happen when another player rises or when temporary power—such as an HOH’s official authority—expires.

Players are tracked during the week and across multiple weeks. This shows how their position changes as alliances form, relationships weaken, authority expires, and new information enters the game. The weekly Power Rankings reveal who is gaining or losing influence over time. Comparing those rankings with public opinion also shows whether the players shaping the game are the same players winning support from fans.

Beyond the Six Powers

Other Factors RPM Tracks

The six powers are only part of the game. RPM also tracks other factors that can affect a player’s position and the final outcome.

Competition Performance

Competition Performance records what players accomplish in challenges. A win may provide safety or authority, but winning alone does not establish social power.

Safety

Safety records protection from eviction, including competition wins, vetoes, immunity, and twists. A player can be safe without influencing anyone else.

Strategy

Strategy records the plans and choices players make. RPM considers whether a move improved the player’s position, failed, or produced an unexpected result.

Relationships and Alliances

RPM tracks trust, protection, promises, information sharing, voting groups, and alliance changes. It looks at what these relationships cause players to do, not just the names they give them.

Production and Game Structure

Rules, twists, nominations, competition formats, and other production decisions can limit or create choices. RPM records these effects separately from player influence.

Chance

Random draws, unexpected matchups, and other events outside a player’s control can change the game. RPM considers how chance helped or limited each player.

Public Opinion

Public polls and fan opportunities show how viewers respond to a player. RPM tracks public opinion separately from the player’s power inside the game.

Outcomes

RPM records nominations, votes, safety, evictions, and other results. These outcomes show what happened, while the power analysis explains how players may have influenced the path to that result.

Human-Created Model

AI-Assisted Workflow

The Reality Power Model is a human creation. AI helps collect and organize data, analyze evidence, and compile reports. A human reviews and approves the methodology, power ratings, analysis, and material prepared for publication.

Reader Information

Limitations

RPM can only analyze information available before the stated Evidence Cutoff. Some conversations, relationships, and decisions may not be shown or publicly recorded. The ratings summarize the strongest available evidence, but they cannot reveal a player’s private thoughts or guarantee what will happen next.

Entertainment Disclaimer

Independent Analysis for Fans

The Reality Power Model is an independent project created for informational and entertainment purposes. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by CBS, Paramount, Big Brother, Survivor, their producers, networks, or contestants.