Take the second cookies. How the authorities are actually changing people

It is generally accepted that power spoils people. The classic quote from the British historian John Akton - “Power is corrupting. Great people are usually bad people. " Examples can be found both in life and in scientific research. The Standford prison experiment of the early 1970s is widely known, when students who were in the role of prisoners began to behave like sadists.

However, other studies have shown that this does not always happen. How power affects a person depends on many factors, including the social context, accountability of a person to more influential people or structures, his morality, and so on.

In general, according to Michael Kraus, a psychologist from Yale University, power itself does not spoil people. Rather, it exposes the qualities that they have. “She simply takes out what we have inside,” he notes .

“When I started working on my books, I believed that the power is corrupting. But now - no, ” agrees the biographer of the American President Lyndon Johnson, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize Robert Caro. - Power reveals a person. She allows you to see how he really wants to act. ”

The authorities can free. Usually a person is limited by social norms and barriers-and correlates his actions with them (at least because of the fear of punishment). The government removes at least part of the restrictions.

A striking example is US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who stated that the status of a “star” allows him to rudely treat women. Judging by numerous evidence, he did so, without fear of the consequences.

One of the studies conducted in the United States showed that the authorities - even the conditional (during the experiment, some of the participants were considered influential people, others - contribute to the fact that people behave more consistently, adjust their behavior in relations with different social groups (family, friends, colleagues). That is, the features of their character are more pronounced.

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