Blogging on Good Therapy

A GoodTherapy.org Featured Column written by Cedar Barstow, M.Ed., C.H.T.

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Given that brain research and universal religious values support basic goodness and natural altruism, why is it that there is so much misuse and abuse of power? This is a question I have been tracking since I was a youngster at camp and I became very distressed and just could not understand why one of my tent-mates had stolen another camper’s comic books.

This is a question that has also concerned Dr. Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California. He has done considerable research about who gets power and how they use it once they get it. It seems we have been “guided by centuries of advice from Machiavelli” and more recently “from Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, (for example: Conceal Your Intentions, Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm Your Victims, Crush Your Enemy Totally, Keep Others in Suspended Terror) to tend to believe that attaining power requires force, deception, manipulation, and coercion. Indeed, we might even assume that positions of power demand this kind of conduct-that to run smoothly, society needs leaders who are willing and able to use power this way.”

New research on power, supported by brain research on hard-wired morality referred to earlier in this chapter, reveals, however, that “power is wielded most effectively when it’s used responsibly, by people who are attuned to and engaged with the needs and interests of others. Years of research suggests that empathy and social intelligence are vastly more important to acquiring and exercising power than are force, deception, or terror. [However,] studies also show that once people assume positions of power, they’re likely to act more selfishly, impulsively, and aggressively, and they have a harder time seeing the world from other people’s points of view. This presents us with the paradox of power: The skills most important to obtaining power and leading effectively are the very skills that deteriorate once we have power.”

Naming and understanding this power paradox is of great importance to the soul work of right use of power advocated here. When in positions of power, we are in positions in which we are on the power-up side of the power differential. Knowing that research shows that in these positions, we are more vulnerable to misusing power, we need to increase our sensitivity, and vigilance about continuing to use our power rightly.

The research is interesting. “Highly detailed studies of ‘chimpanzee politics’ have found that social power among non-human primates is based less on sheer strength, coercion, and the unbridled assertion of self-interest, and more on the ability to negotiate conflicts, to enforce group norms, and to allocate resources fairly.” Dacher Keltner’s research shows similar results with human social hierarchies. In research about social hierarchies within college dormitories, the researchers “made the remarkable discovery that modesty may be critical to maintaining power. Individuals who are modest about their own power actually rise in hierarchies and maintain the status and respect of their peers, while individuals with an inflated, grandiose sense of power quickly fall to the bottom rungs….[In addition,] people instinctively identify individuals who might undermine the interest of the group, and prevent those people from rising in power, through what we call ‘reputational discourse.’” So cultivation and use of social intelligence, i.e. modesty, empathy, engagement with the needs of others, and skill in negotiating conflicts, enforcing norms, an allocating resources fairly is not only right use of power but important to both gaining and maintaining power.

Now let’s look at the research about the other side of the power paradox. Research shows that “power leads people to act in impulsive fashion, both good and bad, and to fail to understand other people’s feelings and desires….For instance, studies have found that people given power in experiments are more likely to rely on stereotypes when judging others, and they 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….Power encourages individuals to act on their own whims, desires, and impulses. When researchers give people power in scientific experiments, those people are more likely to physically touch others in potentially inappropriate ways, to flirt in more direct fashion, [and] to make risky choices and gambles….Perhaps more unsettling is the wealth of evidence that having power makes people more likely to….interrupt others, to speak out of turn, and to fail to look at others who are speaking….Surveys of organizations find that most rude behaviors—shouting, profanities, bald critiques—emanate from the offices….of individuals in positions of power.”

Once again, here’s the power paradox: “Power is given to those individuals, groups, or nations who advance the interests of the greater good in socially-intelligent fashion. Yes, unfortunately, having power renders many individuals….impulsive and poorly attuned to others, ….making them prone to act abusively and lose the esteem of their peers. What people want from leaders—social intelligence—is what is damaged by the experience of power.”

What factors would begin to explain this odd paradox? Here’s my sense of it:
1) Because of the impact of the power differential, those in power-up role are removed and remove themselves from the checks and balances of the feedback loop in which people tell each other either directly or indirectly about their impact both positive and negative. When in power-down position, it is perceived and may truly be too risky to offer negative feedback. The power-up persons then don’t hear the negatives and either or both lose their ability to reality check and feel immune to the usual consequences of abuse of power.
2) People tend to over-identify with their power role, experiencing their enhanced power as entirely personal rather than role power. This leads to grandiosity and an unrealistic sense of Self.
3) People in power-up are also embedded in systems in which it is difficult to act alone and which become invisible to those in the system. These systems support or even mandate particular behaviors that may contribute to right or wrong uses of power. Systems are very complex because members usually are aware of only one or several pieces of the system.
4) We have socially conditioned expectations and misconceptions about the use of power. We have long been accustomed to thinking of power as manipulation, undue force, coercion, terror, and deception. We have understood that that was what power was, how it was earned, and how it was effective. And so we have put up with this model of power and sanctioned it, even though it causes egregious harm. Now is the time to change our model of power.

Changing our personal and collective expectations about right use of power to one that embodies social intelligence and links power with heart is truly ethics as soul work. Movement toward this change will happen through:
1) Owning your personal and professional power as the vital ability to use power to prevent harm, reduce harm, repair harm, and promote well-being;
2) Campaigning for a socially-intelligent model of power;
3) Developing and using your skills for actively participating in the feedback loop;
4) Becoming more and more sensitive to your impact especially when in power differential positions;
5) Strategically and skillfully stopping expecting, condoning, or feeling helpless about misuses of power in systems and power-up individuals. Begin to expect and require social intelligence. This is right use of soul power.

i Dacher Keltner, from Greater Good magazine, Volume IV, Issue 3
ii Dacher Keltner, op. cit.
iii Christopher Boehm, Greater Good magazine, Volume IV, Issue 3
iv Dacher Keltner, op.cit.
v Dacher Keltner, op.cit.
vi Dacher Keltner, op. cit.

©Copyright 2007 Cedar Barstow, M.Ed., C.H.T. All Rights Reserved. Permission to publish granted to GoodTherapy.org. The following article was solely written and edited by the author named above. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the following article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment to this blog entry. Click here to contact Cedar and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Ethics, Right Use of Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.