Power drunk
The adrenalin rush and increase of serotonin (the ‘feel good’ hormone) in the system that come with power can get you addicted to it and have you acting reckless. Power drunkenness is often associated with personalized power as opposed to socialized power. Socialized power is power used to benefit others. This is what you find in a true working democracy where the power is decentralized and in the hands of many. Personal power on the other hand, is using power for personal gain. You can often find leaders under the illusion that they are working for the greater but engaging in behavior that is morally wrong. A sense of power can cause a leader to engage in what leadership ethicist, Terry Price, calls “exception making” – believing that the rules that govern what is right and what is wrong does not apply to him or her as they have their followers best interest at heart.
Power is crazy.
So in continuation of my thoughts on the COZA church saga and what seems to be the abuse of power by the Pastor in charge, I have been looking at how power affects us and found some interesting things:
Power is an aphrodisiac: That is a famous direct quote from Henry Kissinger and the evidence is overwhelming. David Petraeus risked a dazzling career and even a possible future presidential candidacy for sex with his biographer (he was already so powerful before he took over the CIA), American President John F Kennedy was reported to have had sex with a new woman almost every day of his presidency, in Nigeria is Abuja (the centre of power) not flooded with young girls who are hoping to fall victim to ‘senators’? I can bet you the rich and powerful have more affairs than the poor!
Power reduces inhibition: Many of those internal regulators that hold most of us back from bold or bad behaviour diminish or disappear the more powerful we become. Stanford Professor Deborah Gruenfeld, a social psychologist who focuses on the study of power stated that when people feel powerful, they stop trying to ‘control themselves.’ This could likely be the result of increased level of dopamine in the system which affects the way the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is key to forethought, planning, inhibition and attention, functions
Power reveals: According to biographer Robert Caro, If you are naturally a selfish person, with more power, your selfishness would grow. If you are naturally a wanton person, your wantonness’ will grow exponentially with more power.
Power reduces awareness of the way you are perceived by others: Research again ha shown that powerful people tend to read the verbal and facial cues of those around them less accurately and more likely to misjudge how people are responding to them. Instead of focusing outward, they tend to see everybody else as orbiting and existing around them.
Other characteristics of powerful people documented by research include- being more oblivious to what others think, more likely to pursue the satisfaction of their own appetites, more likely to hold stereotypes, overly optimistic and more likely to take risks.
Are we even aware when we do these things?
Who wants a power shake?
Here’s the concluding part of this discussion: http://wp.me/pZyTu-cr
George Akomas jr's Blog 