Being In a Position of Power Can Cause Brain Damage

They say power can really corrupt a human being, well now we have the science to back up this claim.

Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at University of California, Berkley found that, “subjects under the influence of power, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury, becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adapt at seeing things from other people’s point of view.”

Keltner’s examinations have been brought into the public spotlight through a recent piece in The Atlantic in which he likened acquiring power to actual brain trauma: “My own research has found that people with power tend to behave like patients who have damaged their brain's orbitofrontal lobes (the region of the frontal lobes right behind the eye sockets), a condition that seems to cause overly impulsive and insensitive behavior. 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 behavior."

Sukhvinder Obhi, a neuroscientist at McMaster University, in Ontario, who unlike Keltner, who studies behaviors, studies brains recently also described something similar.

According to The Atlantic piece, Obhi, “put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation (TMS) machine, he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, ‘mirroring,’ that may be a cornerstone of empathy."

This showed that the areas of the brain that deal with empathy were significantly less responsive in people in power. The results are down to the brain's neuroplasticity - an ability that allows the mind to rewire itself in response to experiences.

"Many people who have witnessed a colleague get promoted to an executive level have probably seen some changes in their behaviour, and not always for the better." Stated Obhi. "Power it seems, has a profound effect on the neurocognitive system underlying behaviour."

"Our current work aims to integrate previous work from social psychology with the techniques and methods of cognitive neuroscience to gain a better understanding of exactly how power affects the brain and social functioning in a variety of environments."

The study involved 45 volunteers who were primed for the experiment by recounting experiences where they felt powerful, neutral or powerless. They were then shown video footage of a hand squeezing a rubber ball. The TMS system measured brain activity in an area that deals with motor resonance - the left primary motor cortex, which normally activates when witnessing movements in other people. Our perception of other people's actions produces brain activity very similar to those created if we had performed the same actions ourselves.

Although all this talk and research about power seems to be bleak, people who are in positions of power and wish to avoid this brain damage can take positive steps, according to many experts.This includes getting rid of 'yes men' and keeping people around who have the power to call you out on bad behaviour, rewarding honesty while discouraging flattery, and maintaining social connections.