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Essay On Position Of Power

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Power. The world has an absolute fascination with it, it seems that the only articles we see of late are on someone in a position of power, from prostitution scandals to corruption allegations along with the seemingly endless amounts of charges against corporate executives or world-class athletes, headlines these days are filled to the brim with the latest misstep of those in positions of power. So where did it all go wrong? Through the many studies that psychologists have performed in the past, Dacher Keltner from the University of California may have been the one which stumbled across the goldmine, following a study where he performed a survey on freshmen at the start of the semester, asking them to provide their first impressions of …show more content…

Mr. Keltner having noticed these findings came up with the observation that holding a seat of power is an incredibly consistent effect, “When you give people power, they basically start acting like fools. They flirt inappropriately, tease in a hostile fashion, and become totally impulsive.” “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power” quoted by Abraham Lincoln, a man of immense power. No truer statement on power has been stated, power is an addictive idea, drug like, drawing us in, seeping into our brains, latching hold and changing our decisions and morals. It can change people for the better or for the worse, however at this point in time the latter is more common than the former. The only conclusion we can make right now is that there is a cycle of power, you start at the bottom, a receptionist maybe, intentions pure, you work hard and slowly find yourself moving up the ranks, with each rank you move up, you find that there are more and more people in a lower position who must answer to you and your mindset, your intentions, your characteristics ever so slowly change and you become quick to anger, reckless and rude. The fact is, people become this way because it won’t threaten their position, had you been a receptionist, any behaviour like this would’ve resulted in being shown the door and a positive reference for your next job, if you’re lucky. With the idea that there

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