Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us
by Brian Klaas
View on GoodreadsPolitical scientist Brian Klaas's investigation of two competing theories about power and bad behavior — does power corrupt people, or do corruptible people seek power? — drawing on neuroscience, primatology, and field research from despots' courts.
Core ideas
- Selection is the bigger effect: the structures of how power is sought reliably attract a disproportionate share of psychopaths, narcissists, and Machiavellians — they want the role, and the role doesn't filter them out.
- Power does measurably change the people who hold it (less empathy, more impulsivity, more risk-taking) — but the change operates on a population already self-selected for those traits.
- The fix is structural: better selection mechanisms, more accountability, rotation, and shorter tenures, not better hopes for individual virtue.
Published2021
Pages320
ISBN9781982154097
ReadMay 2023
