Power promotes hypocrisy

Power promotes hypocrisy, study finds

Dec. 29, 2009
Courtesy Association for Psychological Science
and World Science staff

2009 may well be re mem bered for its scandal-ridden head lines, from ad mis sions of ex tra mar i tal af fairs by gov­er nors and sen a tors, to cor po rate ex ec u tives fly ing pri vate jets while cut ting em ploy ee ben e fits, and most re­cent ly, to a mys te ri ous early morn ing car crash in Flor i da. The past year has been marked by a se ries of mor al trans gres sions by pow er ful fig ures in po lit i cal, busi ness and celebr ity cir cles.

A new study ex plores why pow er ful peo­ple – many of whom take a mor al high ground – don’t prac tice what they preach. Above, a ses sion of U.S. Con gress pre­pares to lis ten to the pre si dent's State of the Union Speech in a 2003 White House photo.

A new study ex plores why pow er ful peo ple – many of whom take a mor al high ground – don’t prac tice what they preach.Re search ers sought to de ter mine wheth er pow er in spires hy poc ri sy, the ten­den cy to hold high stan dards for oth ers while per form ing mor ally sus pect be­hav iors one self. The re search found that pow er makes peo ple stricter in mor al judg ment of oth ers – while go ing easier on them selves./,,,/