I’ve often thought that something happens to people when they reach the height of power. Perfectly nice and friendly people liked by all seem to have a personality transfer: they become omnipotent…at least in their own minds.
I’ve thought it was due to the sycophant effect, or the feeling that they control so many people’s destiny, or perhaps just that they are paid such huge amounts of money. Or maybe it’s just because they were great actors during their rise, hiding that malignant side.
Then I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal by Jonah Lehrer, “The Power Trip.” Lehrer discussed this very issue. I highly recomment you read the entire article…and think about your behavior.
It turns out that the transformation is real…and there is quite a bit of research on how and why it happens. The very traits that got you to the top disappear and the ogre emerges.
Research by psychologist Dacher Keltner at Haas School of Business even compares the change to brain damage. He says that people with lots of authority (you?) “tend to behave like neurological patients with a damaged orbitofrontal lobe, a brain area that’s crucial for empathy and decision making.”
How horrible…and often the reason why we see so many people in positions of power abuse it so much. They (you?) develop a totally false sense of infallability while losing their ability to understand others. Add to this a loss of ability to make decisions and what do we have? Rod Blagojevich I suppose. What’s your hair look like?
