Comments on: Power breed hypocrisy – powerful people judge others more harshly but cheat more themselves

By: badnicolez

badnicolez — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:16:40 +0000

This study is a ringing endorsement for term limits.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:53:20 +0000

The other way to break this cycle is with a bit of humility (not something we hear about a lot these days) — that is, recognizing that whatever your position of power, it’s not an entitlement. In my experience, looking at leadership/power positions as stewardship helps to keep this perspective, and rein in the otherwise all but inevitable hypocrisy. These were nicely designed experiments, but applying a “stewardship” filter might illuminate alternatives to revolution and derision for avoiding the hypocritical behavior.

By: Allen

Allen — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:50:42 +0000

This is too cool. We should be mindful of this as we make our way up in the world.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:00:47 +0000

That's sort of like the Dunning-Kruger effect (where incompetent people are most likely to think that their performance is above average) applied to power rather than competence.

By: 5acos(phi/2)

5acos(phi/2) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:10:28 +0000

Very interesting. I’m definitely going to pass this around.

Reading between the lines, I wonder if it can be implied that the only people who deserve to wield power are the ones who think that they _don’t_ deserve it?
And assuming such people exist at all, is it possible to maintain such humble mentality? Or are we all doomed to be corrupted by power?

By: OftenWrongTed

OftenWrongTed — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:41:55 +0000

“The greater the power the greater the abuse.” Edmund Burke, MP

By: Arboghast

Arboghast — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:15:54 +0000

Not sure why the DOI’s broken (it seems to be the correct one), but here’s a link to the paper on the publisher’s website: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/04/15/0956797610368810

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:00:25 +0000

FYI – the DOI for your reference doesn’t work.

By: dearieme

dearieme — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:24:28 +0000

“Lammers did three further experiments where he manipulated a volunteer’s feelings …”: so how did Lammers ensure that his power over the volunteers didn’t corrupt him?

By: Nathan Myers

Nathan Myers — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:35:21 +0000

I’ve pointed out dubious aspects of previous psychological experiment reports, but this one looks ironclad to me. Psychology, like biology, is rife with brilliant unasked questions just waiting for a simple, clear experiment to illuminate what was obscure. Great find, Ed!

I’m betting academics will find this work completely uninteresting, and the paper will remain uncited.