The historian Henry Adams was being metaphorical, not medical, when he described power as “a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.” But that’s not far from where Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, ended up after years of lab and field experiments. Subjects under the influence of power, he found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.
Sukhvinder Obhi, a neuroscientist at McMaster University, in Ontario, recently described something similar. Unlike Keltner, who studies behaviors, Obhi studies brains. And when he put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, “mirroring,” that may be a cornerstone of empathy. Which gives a neurological basis to what Keltner has termed the “power paradox”: Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.
—-Power Causes Brain Damage — How leaders lose mental capacities—most notably for reading other people—that were essential to their rise
There is a lot more in the article, of course. I found it fascinating.
All Greek and Latin to me. Not my cup of tea. I never had power so my brain is still intact I think.
I like science, sometimes it finds surprising things.
I’ve never been interested in power over other people, but I have taught Transforming Stress Into Personal Power. Mostly about looking at the opportunities in adversity rather than being crushed by it. Yes, I know, that’s not your cup of tea either but for me it’s been an adventure.
Fascinating! But not so surprising when I think about it.
Not surprising at all given all the examples we have seen. But it is fun to learn some science behind it. 🙂
Ah, so my brain is perfectly healthy because I have never had any power!
Mine too!
I read that initially as something to do with “putting your brain onto charge through electrical currents” a bit like charging up your phone – I see it’s not about that kind of power at all…
That was my first reaction too. Well, of course it would mess things up!
Hence the saying, “Power corrupts…absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We just need to look around, don’t we?
Yes, we knew that all along, but we didn’t understand how it works. That’s the fun part.
I tend to be a ‘skimmer’ in reading and understanding that kind of thing.
I can see you could get very deep very fast!
but yes. it is fascinating.
and when you think about it many examples come to mind.
that is… if i’m correctly understanding it!
I can easily see how it would appeal to you. 🙂
xo
I imagine few people would be interested in the details, but it is interesting that they can start to understand why power corrupts.
What’s going on in our brain, chemically, etc., triggered by our self-talk language, emotions, has more impact on our behavior — or vice versa — than most people realize, so am not surprised by this power research results.