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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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“The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense that Energy is the fundamental concept in physics . . . The laws of social dynamics are laws which can only be stated in terms of power.” -- Bertrand Russell
Three-quarters of a century ago, Bertrand Russell asserted that power is the driving force behind much of social behavior. Consistent with Russell’s theoretical musings, there has been an explosion of empirical research in the past decade – in social psychology, sociology, economics, and political science – demonstrating that power governs the many important social relationships that make up our political, business and family lives. Indeed, the dynamics of power even regulates the interactions of pre-school children. Power appears to be the central animating force of social life.
Given power’s primacy in social life, it is not surprising that one’s position in a social hierarchy transforms people in fundamental ways. Simply placing a person in a powerful or powerless role immediately alters their thoughts and behavior. The powerful tend to see the forest whereas the powerless focus on the trees. The powerful are optimistic, take bold actions and embrace risky ideas while the powerless are psychologically conservative. As Lara Tiedens of Stanford University points out, this complementarity of behavior leads to an efficient division of labor and smooth social relationships. Because it provides survival advantages to groups, hierarchy is the most prominent form of social organization. As a result, the human mind has evolved to be incredibly sensitive to one's own place in a social hierarchy.
Given the wide range of behaviors and cognition that power pulls into its sphere of influence, a fundamental question is how do people acquire power: what are its sources and bases? Many people answer “money, fame, or an important role in one’s social group.” Indeed, each of these may give you asymmetric control over valued resources, which is the very definition of power. But, are there other sources of power, other ways to both feel powerful and signal power to others?
In fact, there are many paths to increase one’s sense of power. The most obvious method is to have actual control over valued resources. But, power is also housed in our memories – simply recalling a time in which one had power has the exact same psychological and behavioral effects as giving people actual resource control. As memories of past power dance in our heads, we feel more powerful and act as if we are in charge in the present. However, although reliving powerful experiences can make one feel powerful, it doesn’t signal power to others.
As it turns out, there is a simple method to both transform people psychologically and signal power to others: altering your body posture. Across species, body posture is often the primary representation of power. From fish to reptiles to lower mammals to human’s closest evolutionary cousins, non-human primates, power is expressed and inferred through expansive postures, large body size, or even the mere perception of large body size through expansive postures.
The link from expansive postures to feeling and acting in a powerful way was elegantly demonstrated in a recent publication in Psychological Science. Dana Carney and Andy Yap from Columbia University and Amy Cuddy from Harvard University found that open, expansive postures (widespread limbs and enlargement of occupied space by spreading out one’s body), compared with closed, constricted postures (limbs touching the torso and minimization of occupied space by collapsing the body inward), increased feelings of power and an appetite for risk. To measure the appetite for risk, these researchers gave participants $2 and told them they could keep this money or roll a die and risk losing the $2 for a payout of $4 (a risky but rational bet since the odds of winning were 50/50). Participants who had been placed in the expansive posture reported feeling significantly more “powerful” and “in charge” and were also 45% more likely to roll the die.
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20 Comments
Add CommentHow does this relate more specifically to physical size? For example, in my experience a tall person usually commands more attention and respect than a short one. Most people with power (aside from the power of money) are tall. More often than not a tall person will be selected over a short person for leadership positions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou make the statement, "This neuroendocrine profile of High T and Low C has been consistently linked to such outcomes as disease resistance and leadership abilities." Yet many people in leadership roles experience greater stress and tend to die young. Apparently their disease resistance isn't that great. Why do you suppose this happens?
Yo, General, take chill pill! Power is just another word for aggression, and the world is weary from the terrible, terrible consequences of aggression. Power is corrupting; didn't you ever hear about absolute power corrupting absolutely?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI reject your premise, or the article's premise, on the face of it.
My initial and my subsequent motivations for social interactions has NOTHING to do with power and everything to do with cooperation and openness. We as a species must learn to extinguish our lusts and foster our inherent, but as yet still weak sense of peace. This was a frightening article, as its implications are terrifying.
I've had a lot of experience with non-hierarchical organizations and, unless there is some sort of structure to prevent it, the "tyranny of the leaderless" prevails.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe cannot escape our biology but that in no way means we can't have cooperative, peaceful communities. We just need stronger (and more direct) democracy.
Lessee, 12 SciAm journalists, all standing tall and straight, over 6 feet, in a room with Danny DeVito.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho has the power?
Expansive posture leads to deeper breaths and more oxygen. I suspect it is the oxygen intake, not the posture itself, that leads to the observed behavior of confidence, exhilaration and risk taking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith Danny DeVito in a room full of 6-footers I'm wondering who would even see Danny. First, you have to be seen before you can compete.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd, as I mentioned in my comment - money usually wins over physical presence. But if you are tall AND rich then you're doubly blessed. Take your crown and scepter and go home. Game over.
Hmmm, if we cannot escape our biology, then how can we have cooperative, peaceful communities. Your comment implies we cannot escape our nature.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn any event I fail to see how that even relates to the article that has nothing actually to say about whether we can cooperate or be peaceful.
I also don't get the relevance of Promytius' remark about power corrupting since the article had nothing to do about that topic which is the use of power.
But proclaiming oneself as the only world superpower is a sign of an superiority complex... $2 isn't much of a risk much less a reward... good posture indicates a feeling that you have something to look forward to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho has proclaimed themselves the only world superpower? How can a country have a superiority complex?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou missed the whole point of the bet example. It exemplifies how individuals perceive risk and reward. If you knew game theory you would understand the point of the bet.
Good posture just means you stand up straight. You still may have nothing to look forward to, but you have good posture doing it.
I agree with your assessment of the negative qualities of over-powered individuals. On the other hand, you'd tend to avoid totally powerless shrinking violets. The optimum behavior, as usual, is the norm: self-confidence and appropriate assertiveness aren't always negatives.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs the author stated, feeling normally empowered doesn't necessarily signal power to others.
I've been a date coach for a little more than 4 years, and posture is one of the basic things most less experienced guys have to work on. A very simple demonstration you can do with a friend: stand in a slightly hunched position with shoulders pulled a little in -- how many people stand -- then rotate your shoulders back, straighten your back, and puff out your chest and ask if he can see the difference. You look a *lot* more powerful with correct posture, and you feel quite different, too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt actually works as a reverse causal effect -- just like how smiling can make you happier:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=smile-it-could-make-you-happier
As far as leadership and dying early: being perceived as a leader increases feelings of control and lowers feelings of helplessness, depression, and stress. However, the added responsibilities of many institutional (and other) leadership positions often pile on additional sources of stress in addition to the base + / - of raw leadership abilities, so good to keep in mind.
Chase Amante
I appreciate your reply. I'm not sure how exactly your first paragraph relates to the question I originally posed which had to do with societal preferences for tall over short people - men in particular in roles of leadership. I'm all for good posture if for no other reason than your clothes fit better. But if you line up five 6 footers and five 5 footers all of whom have great posture, the short person won't be chosen to captain the team. Corporations have preferences based on our own prejudices to chose a tall hiring candidate over an even better qualified short person.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWomen see an analogous preference for size, it's just not their height. We have similar preferences with respect to physical appearance.
But none of these things are related to the question I originally posed.
As for the dying early comment I'm mostly interested in how that is related to the specific comment I cited from the the article. I'm aware of the significance of stress as it relates to life expectancy. My inquiry was more of a scientific interest.
Have you ever watched Danny DeVito? He stands very straight and has expansive gestures which would tend to reflect the fact that he has the power. I know he is short but he never seemed small to me. I think you missed the whole behavior angle in the article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have found that when talking to someone I tend to lean forward and bring my shoulders forward and at the same time wave my hands around a lot. Two of the three behaviors are expansive but bringing my shoulders forward hunches me up. How does this factor in the the postulate that posture implies power?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCouldn't say about your shoulders, but I think if you were in my face waving your hands around I might think you were a bit high on something.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut then maybe you just meant you gesture a lot. I consider that more normal than waving about.
Chiropactors have been saying this for years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this-Standing tall expands the rib cage and permits fuller costovertebral motion
-It inhibits shallow accessory-muscle breathing
-Proper posture reduces the effect of the dentate ligament attachments torquing the meninges (pia mater specifically)
-Getting out of that slouch slows down generative arthritic changes in the vertebral column by shifting weight-bearing from the anterior vertebral bodies onto the discs (where the weight should be borne)
-Erect posture diminishes the probability of developing osteoporotic compression fractures in the thoracic spine
-Lastly, standing tall just plain makes you exude confidence irregardless of any bump up in self-esteem it might engender. Increased positive affect is good for your health.
With modern lifestyles necessitating constant trunk flexion (sitting, driving, computer use, etc) the positive value of proper posture is all the more important.
I agree totally with you. It has taken us 2,000 years to leave power societies like Rome, Assyria, Egypt behind. Even some of our current western nations overtly present the moral as the powerful. Let's go back a few decades and look at the motives for two World Wars and the general eagerness of young men to help their nations gain power by smashing their enemies to bits. Then there's the 'war' between two sexes and the one sex which, at least in public, has only very recently -in some few nations-gained public power away from the home. Carl Gustav Jung said that the opposite of love was power, and he wasn't talking of a Hollywood or Hallmark version of romantic love, but that sacrificial idea of love which seized the Roman world 2,000 years ago. It took enormous strength of character and ego to pursue it then, and nothing seems to have changed today. Could we say that the experiment has failed?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Because it provides survival advantages to groups, hierarchy is the most prominent form of social organization. As a result, the human mind has evolved to be incredibly sensitive to one's own place in a social hierarchy."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe entire premise of democracy is that no human power sits at the top of the pyramid, only (self)consciousness. Of the people, by the people, and for the people presumes differences of creature but equality of access to power.
Learn healthy and expansive posture from the book '8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back', or visit http://egwellness.com. Techniques such as 'tall standing', stretchsitting, glidewalking, and help you elongate your back 24/7 through ordinary movements (no special exercises!).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisinteresting...I find a variety of postures helps in a social Environment...If I need more input a more subdued posture helps...If I need to point out the importance of something a more up right position helps...just my two cents...
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