Read Online Friend and Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both by Adam Galinsky, Maurice Schweitzer - Free Book Online
Authors: Adam Galinsky, Maurice Schweitzer
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greater conviction at the beginning of the group’s meeting. Then two days later, they continued to be seen that way, even when their contributions were equal to those of others on the team. In other words, this power prime influenced short-term behavior, which then had enduring effects.
Thus, to be perceived as powerful, it helps to be not only in the right place at the right time, but also in the right
frame of mind
. A small change in our mindset—activated by something as quick and easy as thinking about a prior experience when we had power—can have a significant impact on our long-term success. Put simply, we can all achieve significantly higher status if we adjust our psychological states at the outset of a group interaction.
Now that we know that power helps us speed down the highway toward a brighter future, we need to be aware that power can also cause us to drive too fast. And when we speed down the highway, we become more likely to crash—sometimes literally.
Powerholics: Invincibility and Invisibility
On June 15, 2013, Ethan Couch was driving his truck at a speed of 70 miles an hour down a highway in Fort Worth, Texas. A mere 16 years of age, Ethan and a group of friends had stolen beer from a Walmart earlier in the evening. Severely drunk, with a blood alcohol content three times the legal limit, Ethan lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a group of pedestrians, killing four and injuring five others. Compounding the tragedy, many of the pedestrians who were struck were good Samaritans, people who had stopped to help out a motorist with a flat tire.
What caused such a horrific accident? According to Ethan’s defense lawyers, it was a disease, one that required treatment, not imprisonment. What was this mysterious disease? It was “Affluenza,” and it is caused by having too much wealth and too much power. Individuals who suffer from Affluenza, according to Ethan’s defense, lose the ability to see the link between their behavior and consequences. Ethan, his defense argued, had been so indulged by his parents that he lost his capacity to engage in moral thinking and responsible behavior!
The judge in the case was apparently swayed by this argument, sentencing Ethan to just 10 years of probation and ordering that his parents pay for him to attend an intensive therapy program.
Whether or not you agree with this ruling, the judge got one thing fundamentally right: Power and privilege are intoxicating. Left unchecked, they can turn individuals into optimistic risk-takers who don’t heed the boundaries that normally constrain our behavior. Often, the powerful only see the rewards in their behavior and not the risks or even mortal consequences.
This may be why, as we found in a study with Cameron Anderson of Berkeley, power makes people less likely to want to use condoms during sexual intercourse. And not just men—we found the same effect for women when they had been primed with power.
Or why the powerful are more likely to cheat and break the rules, even rules they themselves have created and imposed on others. In research we conducted with Joris Lammers of the University of Cologne, we had participants roll a set of dice to determine the number of lottery tickets they would receive—for example, a roll of two would earn them two tickets—and to report the roll of their dice. Would the powerful be more likely to overreport their outcomes? We found that indeed they were. So why do the powerful speed down the highway and end up hurting themselves and others? Part of the reason is because, like Mark Hurd and Ethan Couch, they assume they are the only ones on the road. Let’s look at why.
The Powerful Think They Are the Only Ones on the Highway
Are people in power really
that
oblivious to the plight of others, or is that just something the less powerful say to feel better about themselves? We designed an experiment to find out. Here is what we asked our participants to do: Hold up the index
Thus, to be perceived as powerful, it helps to be not only in the right place at the right time, but also in the right
frame of mind
. A small change in our mindset—activated by something as quick and easy as thinking about a prior experience when we had power—can have a significant impact on our long-term success. Put simply, we can all achieve significantly higher status if we adjust our psychological states at the outset of a group interaction.
Now that we know that power helps us speed down the highway toward a brighter future, we need to be aware that power can also cause us to drive too fast. And when we speed down the highway, we become more likely to crash—sometimes literally.
Powerholics: Invincibility and Invisibility
On June 15, 2013, Ethan Couch was driving his truck at a speed of 70 miles an hour down a highway in Fort Worth, Texas. A mere 16 years of age, Ethan and a group of friends had stolen beer from a Walmart earlier in the evening. Severely drunk, with a blood alcohol content three times the legal limit, Ethan lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a group of pedestrians, killing four and injuring five others. Compounding the tragedy, many of the pedestrians who were struck were good Samaritans, people who had stopped to help out a motorist with a flat tire.
What caused such a horrific accident? According to Ethan’s defense lawyers, it was a disease, one that required treatment, not imprisonment. What was this mysterious disease? It was “Affluenza,” and it is caused by having too much wealth and too much power. Individuals who suffer from Affluenza, according to Ethan’s defense, lose the ability to see the link between their behavior and consequences. Ethan, his defense argued, had been so indulged by his parents that he lost his capacity to engage in moral thinking and responsible behavior!
The judge in the case was apparently swayed by this argument, sentencing Ethan to just 10 years of probation and ordering that his parents pay for him to attend an intensive therapy program.
Whether or not you agree with this ruling, the judge got one thing fundamentally right: Power and privilege are intoxicating. Left unchecked, they can turn individuals into optimistic risk-takers who don’t heed the boundaries that normally constrain our behavior. Often, the powerful only see the rewards in their behavior and not the risks or even mortal consequences.
This may be why, as we found in a study with Cameron Anderson of Berkeley, power makes people less likely to want to use condoms during sexual intercourse. And not just men—we found the same effect for women when they had been primed with power.
Or why the powerful are more likely to cheat and break the rules, even rules they themselves have created and imposed on others. In research we conducted with Joris Lammers of the University of Cologne, we had participants roll a set of dice to determine the number of lottery tickets they would receive—for example, a roll of two would earn them two tickets—and to report the roll of their dice. Would the powerful be more likely to overreport their outcomes? We found that indeed they were. So why do the powerful speed down the highway and end up hurting themselves and others? Part of the reason is because, like Mark Hurd and Ethan Couch, they assume they are the only ones on the road. Let’s look at why.
The Powerful Think They Are the Only Ones on the Highway
Are people in power really
that
oblivious to the plight of others, or is that just something the less powerful say to feel better about themselves? We designed an experiment to find out. Here is what we asked our participants to do: Hold up the index
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