The possession of power disrupts the work of the mirror neurons, which are responsible for understanding and empathizing with others.
What officials and deputies have been doing lately cannot be called anything other than civil suicide! You don't have to go far for examples.
What is even worth a session of self-exposure, which was arranged by the Saratov regional minister Natalya Sokolova ("macaroshki always cost the same"), who taught the people how easy and pleasant it is to live on 3.5 thousand rubles a month! Or Senator Lakhova, who talked about the beneficial effect of the famine of the war years on the good physical shape of veterans. And the other day, the governor of Karelia made a kaminout, who got nasty on the social network of a mother of two children. The servant of the people said that it was "useless" to contact him about the opening of a nursery for children: "Let his father, grandfathers think about your child!"
It seemed that adults could not fail to understand that they were committing incriminating acts ?! However, scientists say: everything is natural! People who have received power inevitably break away from the people, because power, it changes the work of the brain and leads to a transformation of the personality.
George W. Bush and the inverted American flag
The possession of power changes the way mirror neurons work, which are responsible for empathy - the ability to understand the feelings of others and to empathize with them. In 2006, Adam Galinsky, professor of management at the renowned Kellogg business school, conducted a simple yet highly revealing experiment. He recruited two groups of volunteers - one included the "powers that be" and the other "subordinates." Since it is difficult to lure politicians and financial tycoons into the laboratory, Galinsky did something original: he asked some students to remember everyday situations where they took responsibility for themselves and decided for others. And others - "subordinates" - were asked to revive in their memory episodes where they performed tasks and assignments of others. And then the "powers that be" and "subordinates" were given markers and asked to draw the letter "E" on their foreheads.
It turned out that people in positions of power were 3 times more likely to draw "E" from their point of view - that is, others saw it upside down. And the "subordinates" tried to write "E" so that other people could easily see it. Psychologists explain: this test is used to understand how much a person is able to mentally put himself in the place of others. The powerful of this world, the ability to see themselves through the eyes of other people, "mirror" other people's feelings and thoughts is disturbed. A striking example of this is the episode that happened to US President George W. Bush at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when he, supporting swimmer Michael Phelps, waved the US flag inside out for a long time in the stands. At the same time, the head of the superpower could not understand for a long time why those around him make him "big eyes".
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The correctness of this hypothesis was confirmed by a neurophysiologist from McMaster University (Canada) Suhwinder Obi. He used the method of transcranial magnetic stimulation (it gives an accurate idea of which parts of the brain are firing) to accurately track the work of mirror neurons. This time there was no need to draw anything. The participants in the experiment simply watched a video in which someone's hand was squeezing a rubber ball. The normal "mirror response" is that the observer should activate the same parts of the brain that work in the person playing with the ball. In subordinate people, the nervous system reacted mirrored to the video. But among the "powers that be" this reaction was violated. Perhaps that is why our servants of the people are so callous to the troubles of the people?
How Churchill's wife brought to life
Is class hatred already awakening in you? Is your indignant mind boiling? Do not get excited: the deformation of the personality in power is an inevitable process. The point is that mirror neurons fade away because the leader no longer needs to copy other people's behavior. On the contrary, he himself must create a model of behavior that is a role model. In addition, to make decisions, the boss needs to learn how to filter out secondary information. After all, his task is to be an effective manager and achieve results. Unfortunately, most often this “secondary information” is the vital interests and feelings of subordinates. They are primarily sacrificed by the leaders, bringing the "bright future" closer.
According to American psychologist Dacher Keltner, a professor at the University of California, possession of power has the same consequences as traumatic brain damage. In his book The Paradox of Power, he formulates this paradox as follows: people acquire power because in this way others evaluate their contribution to the common cause. That is, they are rewarded for initiative, camaraderie, and the ability to improve the lives of others. But having received power, the masters of life lose precisely the very qualities that helped to gain it. They are forced to do this by the desire for efficiency, which we wrote about above. As a result, a painfully familiar situation arises: we select candidates who have established themselves as fighters for a common cause. Then these lovely people say: the state owes you nothing!And the higher authorities immediately frantically corrects the "truth-tellers" (he didn't mean that!) Or write them off …
Can this vicious circle be broken? Keltner believes that memories from the past, when the "aces" did not feel powerful and influential, are capable of returning "arbiters of destinies" to earth. The leader should be surrounded by people who can sober him up from time to time. In particular, his wife Clementine played such a role under Winston Churchill. When she felt that the British Prime Minister was beginning to treat his subordinates arrogantly, she wrote to her husband a letter that began with the words: “Dear Winston, I must confess, I noticed that your manners are not what they were before, and you are far from being so kind, as before …”But if there is no feedback at all with officials, then mutual misunderstanding does not bode well.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV