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27 Kommentare

  1. This is why being led by a dictator is generally a bad idea. Or being a small country next to a dictatorship.

  2. I would love to fund a nonprofit magazine called „Unpopular Mechanics.“

    We’ll have a mission statement of only publishing peer reviewed research abstracts written in layman’s terms without paywalls or baked in ads.

  3. AltruisticMode9353 on

    Can’t read the article. How are they defining „altered state“ here. Do they mean in the very loose sense of „powerful people have detectable differences in the brain“, or something stronger like „powerful people’s phenomology is closer to people on drugs than sober non-powerful people“. 

  4. Own-Animator-7526 on

    TL;DR: …  *drivers of expensive cars were far more likely to ignore pedestrians at crosswalks, and wealthier participants in laboratory experiments were more willing to bend rules or take resources meant for others.*

  5. I have a theory this is basically Marx’s theory of alienation but the extreme other end of the spectrum.

    Marx argued workers are alienated from:

    1) the product of their labor,

    2) the act of labor itself,

    3) their species-being (human creative potential)

    4) other people. The capitalist, in his framework, is the agent of alienation, not its victim.
    >
    This does break down in a few places but a broader philosophical application of the idea applies quite well I think.

    – Edited for formatting/spelling.

  6. Use it or lose it. The one you feed. And so on. Probably most poor suckers are bad at building robust organizations so it may go both ways.

  7. lanternhead on

    >two people whose SESs place different social pressures and demands on them engage with their social environment differently

    Wowww 

  8. coconutpiecrust on

    Makes sense. In the Careless People book about Facebook the author specifically says that one one is ever allowed to contradict Zuckerberg. These “powerful” people are surrounded by sycophants and enablers, and actually accepting reality as it is would be catastrophic as it would destroy their whole world. 

    Of course they double down on delusion. They have the means to do it, too. 

  9. ProblemSuccessful197 on

    „Things I could have told you without doing any research at all“. Like, seriously, sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who read „The Emperor’s New Clothes“ in grade school.

  10. Sounds exactly like anti-social personality disorder and underdeveloped sections of the brain that are supposed to be responsible for processing empathy and trust.

    My theory is that the brain damage is what provides them with the greed and cruelty to become ultra-powerful

  11. Sensitive_Counter_92 on

    That’s why people in expensive cars behave like they are something special!

  12. I have heard it called „Power Psychosis“ in the past. If you are surrounded by yes-men or people you can bully you lose important social feedback that keeps you from behaving too strangely. Being powerful means that you can effectively ignore reality far more than your average person. Dictators and billionaires wind up going increasingly crazy.

    Apparently obsequious chat bots can allow poor people to go crazy in the same way if they interact too much with them.

  13. Well it’s pay walled so can’t read it…

    but isn’t this just a case that everyone experiences a change depending on their social/economic situation? Like if you grow up in a racist town and surrounded by racists, you are racist.

    If you are ultra rich or work at very high corporate jobs you start treating people as commodities, and your view on resources becomes skewed?

    I mean everyone by that logic has a different reality?

  14. peacefinder on

    I am suddenly a believer in widespread term limits based on periodic mandatory cognitive testing.

    Take a baseline test when filing to run for office. Re-test annually if elected. As soon as a change like this becomes detectable, they’re barred from re-election.

  15. Self-reinforcing loop: Ultra-powerful people rise to that level because they overindex on sociopathy, and being ultra-powerful it rewards sociopathic behavior.

  16. I have an issue with “powerful”… they just rich. And 9 out of 10 cases, they were borne rich… and 10 out of 10, they have “moral flexibility” which helped them to become even richer.

  17. Glad researchers proved what most of us know about ultra-powerful folks and how they view the rest of the world.

  18. meatsmoothie82 on

    The human brain is not able to process the idea of infinite resources. We are not meant to live in a world where every person we interact with either says “yes” to everything or in a world where every person is trying to angle to get something out of us.

    “Sudden wealth syndrome” Coined by Dr. Stephen Goldbart is a state of paranoia and other mental health challenges that often follows people rapidly coming into wealth.

    Our brains need to be challenged, we need to provide for ourselves in basic ways-

    when we don’t we lose connection to what makes us human.

  19. CHERNO-B1LL on

    But are these people like this because they are rich? Or rich because they are like this?

    Knocking people down and stealing resources is how most of the rich people I have come across got there. Or how their parents got their and what they learned worked.

  20. Humans evolved when they socialized, not when they exerted unlimited power over others.

  21. Like thinking they need to repopulate the earth via their birthing compounds?

  22. What’s with all the posts lately with the vibe of ‚Studies Suggest Dark and Witty People Are Better Than You‘?

    It’s kinda lame.

  23. artbystorms on

    Yeah, it’s called being sociopaths. If a chimp horded bananas and let all the others in their troup starve, they’d be studied for anti-social behavior. In Humans we put them in charge of governments and industries.

  24. As an ex-Christian, I enjoy reminding wealthy Christians of Matthew 19:24.

    In order to keep wealth, you have to sacrifice the parts of your humanity that lead to both personal peace and to a better world.

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