“Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely” (thread)
Few maxims seem to so consistently & accurately describe a human condition as this does. But why? What insights do neuroscience & cognitive science provide in describing why power so thoroughly corrupts us? 1/16
Few maxims seem to so consistently & accurately describe a human condition as this does. But why? What insights do neuroscience & cognitive science provide in describing why power so thoroughly corrupts us? 1/16
Humans have a strong tendency to want to see ourselves in a positive light. It’s rather uncomfortable to look at ourselves or our own behavior and be disgusted by what we see. 2/16
Psychologists describe Self-serving Bias as the tendency to see our successes as a product of our own doing while attributing our failures to external factors. 3/16
Self-serving Bias explains why we tend to get upset at someone else’s driving error, but when we make the exact same error, well – we have a perfectly sensible justification for it. 4/16
Self-serving Bias also explains why if we attain a high grade in a class, we tend to attribute it to our own doing, but if we receiving a failing grade, we tend to blame external factors, like the teacher's poor teaching style, etc. 5/16
Self-serving Bias has been heavily tested & studied by cognitive scientists and psychologists and is widely believed to be a strong biological cognitive bias. Furthermore, neuroscientists have been able to study, map & confirm Self-serving Bias using fMRI. 6/16
From a sociobiological point of view, humans are a highly social species. Our brains evolved with sociality as a central component. This explains why self-esteem & social-esteem are such strong human needs & why shame and social ostracization are so physiologically painful. 7/16
Self-serving Bias is a form of self-preservation and self-defense against this pain.
So, what does this human tendency to want to see ourselves in a positive light have to do with the maxim “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”? A lot. 8/16
So, what does this human tendency to want to see ourselves in a positive light have to do with the maxim “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”? A lot. 8/16
Suppose we attain a little illegitimate power. Our tendency will be to want to see this attainment as being well deserved by our own efforts while seeing others who lost out as undeserving.
We want to think of ourselves as deserving & we tend to bend our perception to that. 9/16
We want to think of ourselves as deserving & we tend to bend our perception to that. 9/16
Now suppose we gain even more illegitimate power. Our tendency will continue, but with more power & wealth we are able to more fully put up facades of our deserving such power and we are able to surround ourselves with people who will confirm our self-created illusions. 10/16
The more illegitimate power we attain, the more our Self-serving Bias deludes us. We are king because we are most deserving of being king. And as king, we can further insulate ourselves from the reality of our actions. 11/16
The path towards “absolute power” is built by small self-delusions of legitimacy. With ever more illegitimate power our brain defaults to more and more self-delusion, until our sense of reality is skewed, and thus power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. 12/16
Given the danger of this human tendency, we need a society that safeguards against illegitimate power. That means a society whose social institutions inherently breed real freedom & democracy 13/16
Freedom & democracy means having legitimate power in the decisions that affect our lives: that means having a say in decisions that affect us proportional to how much the decision affects us. 14/16
Defining freedom & democracy (above thread) allows us to differentiate between legitimate & illegitimate power, thus we can greatly improve the maxim:
Illegitimate power corrupts, absolute illegitimate power corrupts absolutely 15/16
Illegitimate power corrupts, absolute illegitimate power corrupts absolutely 15/16
Incidentally, this phenomena (Self-serving Bias) also helps explain why it’s so difficult for us to see our own privileges: 16/16
