You always suspected it- but now this is confirmed: Power and Compassion are mutually exclusive. It is not because people with power have a heart of stone, it is just that they are able to turn a blind eye more successfully than others.
In a brilliant research, a team of scientists led by Gerben A. van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam, have conclusively proved this in a report cited by Association of Psychological Science.
In the experiment, a group of students completed a questionnaire that identified them as high power or low power individuals. Then they were randomly paired, and one of them narrated to the other about an event that had made them suffer emotionally.
The research students were wired up to a ECG to measure the RSA activity. RSA is a defense mechanism which the lowers heart rate, and provides us with a calm, relaxed feeling.
As could be expected, high-power individuals exhibited high RSA, which means they buffered themselves succesfully against the distress of the narrator, and showed less empathy than the low powered individuals.
The more power you have, the less compassionate you get. Or as someone said, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I wonder whether you get to be a high power individual through being uncaring, or whether power blinds you to pain. I am inclined to take the Dilbert line.
To me, anyone who wants or hold onto power must be strong emotinally as otherwise one may be perceived weak and susceptible to lose control of things. So yes powerful may not show empathy on the face of it but then it may not mean they are less compassionate. It is what one is at heart that matters more than what one is on face. There are men who are/were powerful and are yet compassionate.
ReplyDeleteSo in my view it is more of a self control that one is able to withdraw feelings of emotion when faced with problems / situations of others or self. It is also important that a cool and collective mind is present to take decisions that are sound.
Yes, that is what we think.
ReplyDeleteBut the ECG says that such self-control is natural to the powerful.
It is not as if the power-people were moved by the painful stories and then they controlled their emotions. They were not at all concerned.
The article to which the link has been given says that this could mean that powerful people might have problems in close relationships because of their lack of empathy.
I don't know how to take these studies, but they are science, so we have to accept, I think.