2. What is the impact of having power on how
people behave? Does ‘power corrupt’? Here is
some evidence from the published research …
3. Powerful people … 1
….are less affected by the judgments of others’
when making decisions—which is double
edged, depending on how good their
judgement and ‘intel’ are;
4. Powerful people … 2
… benefit from power at the cognitive level—
they stay more goal focused and have better
‘executive function’ than the less powerful (and
it isn’t that these factors lead to getting power)
5. Powerful people … 3
… can reach good
decisions under
pressure both by ‘gut
feel’ and reason. Less
powerful people
match on ‘gut feel’ but
not the reasoning.
(see further below on
‘taking advice’.)
6. People given power in lab experiments are
• more likely to rely on
stereotypes when judging
others;
• pay less attention to the
characteristics that define
those other people as
individuals;
• predisposed to stereotype,
they also judge others'
attitudes, interests, and needs
less accurately;
• believe they have control over
events even when they don’t
(“illusory control”—see below)
7. They are also likely to …
• flirt in more direct fashion
• make risky choices and gambles
• make first offers in negotiations
• physically touch others in potentially
inappropriate ways;
• speak their mind, and
• eat cookies like the Cookie Monster, with
crumbs all over their chins and chests.
8. High-power individuals are more likely to
• interrupt others;
• speak out of turn;
• fail to look at others who are
speaking;
• tease friends and colleagues
in hostile, humiliating
fashion;
• compensate—if they feel
incompetent—by bullying
subordinates and being
aggressive.
9. Overall, having power lets people…
• become more focused on their own needs
and wants;
• become less focused on others’ needs,
wants, and actions; and
• act as if written and unwritten rules that
others are expected to follow don’t apply
to them
10. People with power tend to behave
like patients who have damaged
their brain's orbitofrontal lobes … a
condition that seems to cause
overly impulsive and insensitive
behaviour. Thus the experience of
power might be thought of as
having someone open up your skull
and take out that part of your brain
so critical to empathy and socially-
appropriate behaviour.
Prof. Dacher Keltner
11. Many bosses suffer a form of
power poisoning: They believe
that they are aware of every
important development in the
organization (even when they
are remarkably ignorant of key
facts). This affliction is called
“the fallacy of centrality”—the
assumption that because one
holds a central position, one
automatically knows everything
necessary to exercise effective
leadership.
12. Is this ‘corruption’?
Corruption may be too strong a word. But these
results clearly show that having power (real or in
a simulation) readily leads towards behaviour
patterns, many of them unreflective, which
allow people to do things they would not
approve of/ like were they subject to these
behaviours from others.
13. Illusory control …
appears to be a generative cause
of and driving force behind a
number of effects previously
found to be associated with
power, including
action, optimism, and self-
esteem.
This shed lights on why the
powerful often seem to exhibit
hubristic overconfidence.
By producing an illusion of
personal control, power may
cause people to lose touch with
reality in ways that lead to
overconfident decision making.
14. High self-esteem is the cause of poor decision-making
"People are afraid to admit they
are wrong, so they pour more time
and resources into a lost cause.
They are afraid to look bad by
failing, so they engage in self-
handicapping, which increases the
likelihood of failure. They avoid
taking a chance in order to prevent
a possible rejection“
Baumeister, Roy F. (1997) ‘Esteem Threat, Self-Regulatory Breakdown,
and Emotional Distress as Factors in Self-Defeating Behavior’, Review
of General Psychology VoL 1. No. 2, 145-174
15. Do the powerful take advice? From whom?
Under what circumstances?
16. People offered advice…
• Under value it on easy
tasks and over value it on
difficult tasks.
• Are more responsive to it
from older, better
educated, wiser, or more
experienced advisors.
• Take more notice of
confident advisors
• Take more notice of good
quality advice (but still
may ignore it!)
17.
18. Overconfidence
impacts on
status
and being
listened to …
• overconfidence predicts higher status in groups
• overconfident members are the ones who speak the most
often, use a confident tone, give the most information, and
come across as calm and relaxed. These individuals are also
more convincing in displays of ability than other members who
are highly competent.
19. The type of problem affects accepting advice:
• When a task is intellective (‘cut and dried’ with a right
answer) advice is accepted from anyone based on
expertise, accuracy and being ‘right’
• When a task is more a ‘judgement’ (ethical, ‘best
guess’, etc.) people rely on advice from the social majority
who support each other rather than any ‘minority’
20. Taking personal advice or not:
When facing judgments
about their own
behaviour, people weigh
information from similar
advisors more than
information from dissimilar
advisors.
However, when facing judgments
about others’ behaviour, people
weigh information from dissimilar
advisors more than similar
advisors.
21. Rosy glasses or red haze?
In an experiment where people were primed with gratitude (+), anger
(-) or neither (0):
+ led to increased trust, accepting advice and increased task accuracy;
- led to decreased trust, ignoring advice and decreased task accuracy;
0 sat in between these
22. So, does power corrupt?
Maybe not as an absolute rule, but possession
of power in real situations and simulations
consistently offers strong temptations and
chances to behave unwisely and / or shamefully.
To resist this requires both insight and good
character.