I highly doubt there is a single person that has never heard of the idea that power corrupts people. Also, I think a quote I’ve heard from somewhere is “absolute power corrupts absolutely” I don’t know where I came from but it’s true for the most part. However, whilst a lot of people have heard about the corrupting influence of power, a lot of people don’t know how or why power corrupts people. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn how does power corrupt people. If you enjoy learning about power, privilege and social psychology then you’ll enjoy this podcast episode for sure.
This psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social And Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
How Does Power Corrupt People?
Typically, and I think this happens because it’s easier to see, we think about powerful leaders and people in charge. Since it is generally these people that we see as powerful people who take advantage, take more than their fair share of resources and these people selfishly strive for even more control and power.
We typically think about powerful leaders as getting corrupted because the world is filled with dictators and so-called “strong man” leaders, so this allows us to easily see the damage that a powerful, despotic leader can cause.
However, we need to acknowledge that once a person has power then this can lead to corruption (typically moral corruption) and bad behaviour. So, how and why is power associated with corruption?
How Does Power Change Someone’s Self-Perception?
The first way how powerful people can become corrupt is because their power changes their self-perceptions. Since philosopher Terry Price argues that powerful people engage in a mechanism known as “exception-making” where they don’t believe the rules and laws of society apply to them.
This is a very, very easy source of corruption and I can easily think of five, ten, maybe even twenty politicians and celebrities that fit this category.
In addition, it’s worth noting there is research evidence that the more powerful a person is, the more they focus on their egocentric needs and desires, as well as they were less able to see other people’s perspectives.
Personally, I think this is really interesting because if we draw on Piaget’s work from developmental psychology, then children before the age of 7 work in the exact same way. They focus on their own needs and desires and they often fail to understand or see the point of view of others. Which looking at some celebrities and politicians, I think calling them 7-year-old children is an insult to children.
Anyway, this “exception-making” is even more problematic for people in positions of authority and power who could exploit the people they are in charge of.
Power Gives Someone Privilege
The second reason why power corrupts is because powerful people have a lot of resources that they can use to their benefit. Therefore, this allows the powerful people to achieve and experience things that less powerful people can only dream of. For example, fine dining, fast cars, penthouse apartments and so on.
In other words, powerful people get special treatment and this can lead to corruption because powerful people can buy their way out of trouble.
We can all see this relatively easily because the Criminal Justice System does operate on two tiers, because powerful people can hire the best lawyers, they can bail themselves out of whatever trouble they find themselves in and they can throw whatever money they need to make it go away.
I’m sure we can all think of famous politicians and celebrities that have done this in the past few years.
In addition, powerful people can intimidate and threaten other people too. I see this repeatedly in films, books and I sometimes use this in my Bettie English Private Eye Mysteries, when a character says “Don’t You Know Who I Am?”. Then after a powerful person does this, it’s normal for a less powerful person to back down or they support that powerful person and benefit from their alliance. In the short term, this tends to benefit the person but longer term this can make the person powerful themselves but it can corrupt them too in the bitter end.
As a result, to make it clear, powerful person threatening others can lead to corruption because it shows they can bend others to their will, manipulate them and subjugate them. All of these are immoral behaviours.
Why Doesn’t Power Have To Corrupt?
So far, we’ve looked at what can make someone become corrupt and this connects to moral grey areas too. Yet being a powerful person doesn’t have to make you corrupt, because there are a lot of wonderful, kind and highly influential celebrities and politicians, so power does not always corrupt.
The difference between these corrupt and uncorrupted powerful people is “socialised” power, this is power used to benefit others, and “personalised” power, this is power used for personal gains, according to a range of leadership scholars.
Therefore, some people argue the best way to stop power corrupting someone is to keep them humble, because it’s important that powerful people are humble when evaluating their behaviour objectively. Since these powerful people need to realise that their power isn’t their right, instead it is given to them. Also, their power can fleeting, and it’s important that the people closest to the leader (like their inner circle) actually keep the leader accountable to stop them becoming corrupted.
Social Psychology Conclusion
Overall, in this podcast episode, we learnt that power can corrupt people because it changes the powerful person’s self-perceptions so they don’t believe laws and rules apply to them. Also, it gives them privileges other people don’t normally have so they can get out of trouble easily in addition to threatening and intimidating others.
At the end of the day, we all need to know (especially leaders and powerful people) that it is our obligation, our duty, our moral responsibility to use our power to benefit others. We should never abuse any power we have because this can be illegal at times and it is always immoral behaviour that has the power to harm others.
Something we should never ever do.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Social Psychology: A Guide To Social And Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Social Psychology References
Case, C. R., & Maner, J. K. (2015). When and why power corrupts: An evolutionary perspective. In Handbook on Evolution and Society (pp. 460-473). Routledge.
Cislak, A., Cichocka, A., Wojcik, A. D., & Frankowska, N. (2018). Power corrupts, but control does not: What stands behind the effects of holding high positions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(6), 944-957.
DeCelles, K. A., DeRue, D. S., Margolis, J. D., & Ceranic, T. L. (2012). Does power corrupt or enable? When and why power facilitates self-interested behavior. Journal of applied psychology, 97(3), 681.
Giurge, L. M., Van Dijke, M., Zheng, M. X., & De Cremer, D. (2021). Does power corrupt the mind? The influence of power on moral reasoning and self-interested behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(4), 101288.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/202402/how-and-why-power-corrupts-people
Morales, M. (1997). The corrupting influence of power. In Philosophical Perspectives on Power and Domination (pp. 41-53). Brill.
Price, T. L. (2010). Understanding ethical failures in leadership. Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era, 402-405.
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