There’s a growing body of research from behavioral neuroscience which indicate that power and privilege have a deleterious effect on the brain. People with high-socioeconomic status often:
Have reduced empathy and compassion.
Have a diminished ability to see from someone else’s perspective.
Are more impulsive.
Have a dangerously high tolerance for risk.
When you don’t need other people to survive, they become irrelevant to you. When you’re in charge, you can behave very badly and people will still be polite and respectful toward you. Instead of reciprocity, it’s a formalized double standard. When you have status, you’re given excessive credibility, and rarely hear the very ordinary push-back from others most of us are accustomed to, instead you receive flattery and praise and your ideas are taken seriously by default.
Some sources:
Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years
There’s a growing body of research from behavioral neuroscience which indicate that power and privilege have a deleterious effect on the brain. People with high-socioeconomic status often:
Have reduced empathy and compassion.
Have a diminished ability to see from someone else’s perspective.
Are more impulsive.
Have a dangerously high tolerance for risk.
When you don’t need other people to survive, they become irrelevant to you. When you’re in charge, you can behave very badly and people will still be polite and respectful toward you. Instead of reciprocity, it’s a formalized double standard. When you have status, you’re given excessive credibility, and rarely hear the very ordinary push-back from others most of us are accustomed to, instead you receive flattery and praise and your ideas are taken seriously by default.
Some sources:
Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years
(Abstract) or (Full Text)
Does power corrupt? An fMRI study on the effect of power and social value orientation on inequity aversion.
(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)
Social Class and the Motivational Relevance of Other Human Beings: Evidence From Visual Attention
(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)
The Psychology of Entrenched Privilege: High Socioeconomic Status Individuals From Affluent Backgrounds Are Uniquely High in Entitlement
(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)