Power corrupts but can also ennoble the same person
Press Office
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump arrived in London on horseback for Paddy Power, London, UK, 13th March 2017 by TaylorHerring
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The observation that power tends to corrupt is accepted wisdom but now research from psychologists suggests that holding high positions might simultaneously have good and bad consequences.
The researchers found that exercising power over others and personal control can have opposite effects. Whereas power over others was associated with antisocial tendencies, such as being aggressive and exploiting others, personal control was found to have the opposite effect.
Dr Aleksandra Cichocka, of the University’s School of Psychology, and joint lead researcher Dr Aleksandra Cislak, of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, found that people holding high office tended to display behaviours that veered between the two opposites.
High-status positions are associated both with feelings of control over others, more traditionally associated with the concept of power – and with personal control, which is the ability to influence the course of one’s own life. These two types of control are known to be motivating factors in people seeking to hold high positions.
The researchers set out to establish whether these two psychological processes stand behind what they describe as the ‘corruptive versus ennobling’ effects of holding high positions. The research comprised of three studies carried out in Poland and the US and involving individuals working in different organisations.
The researchers concluded that holding a high position can be both corruptive and ennobling but that the overall effect may depend on which of these two opposing processes prevails.
Power Corrupts, but Control Does Not: What Stands Behind the Effects of Holding High Positions (Aleksandra Cislak, University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland; Aleksandra Cichocka, University of Kent; Adrian Dominik Wojcik, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland; and Natalia Frankowska, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland) is published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.