Contagion, corruption and you
by Miki SaxonAnother favorite of mine, Robert Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule added his thoughts to BW’s cover story Business@Work.
In a short, hard-hitting piece, Sutton says that “One of the most compelling, and frightening, academic literatures I know is about something called “emotional contagion,” which has the power to turn almost anybody into a jerk.
The research shows “…that most people, regardless of their personality traits, will automatically and mindlessly start feeling and displaying the emotions expressed by the people around them,” and says it has happened more than once to him.
Next up is research that confirms that power does indeed corrupt, and it doesn’t take much to do the job.
“A growing body of research—notably by professors Dachner Keltner at University of California, Berkeley, Deborah Gruenfeld at Stanford, and their students—documents that three things happen when people are put in positions of power:
- They focus more on satisfying their own needs;
- They focus less on the needs of their underlings;
- They act like “the rules” others are expected to follow don’t apply to them.
Keltner also cites research showing that power leads people to process information in shallower ways and to make decisions that are less carefully reasoned.”
Hilariously, given just a smidgeon of power and people “eat more cookies, chew with their mouths open, and leave more crumbs.”
The way to avoid these traps is by honing a high state of self-awareness, while cultivating a circle who tells you the truth no matter what. This approach is in line Stanford professor Hayagreeva Rao’s recent hypothesis “…that CEOs with teenage children are less likely to suffer from the power poisoning described by Keltner and Gruenfeld. He reasons that no matter how much deference they get at work, at home they face sons and daughters who constantly challenge their power and question their judgment.”
Gee, who knew that teenage angst and rebellion served a higher cause than just making adults miserable.
Image credit: flattop341 CC license
