4 Jun 2016

Dacher Keltner: power and corruption

From Saturday Morning, 8:12 am on 4 June 2016

The best way to become powerful is to be nice, but being powerful turns people nasty – that is the 'power paradox' Dacher Keltner explores in his latest book.

Dacher Keltner

Dacher Keltner. Photo: supplied

Dr Keltner argues it is the seductions of power which enduce people to lose the very skills that enabled them to gain power in the first place.

Dr Dacher Keltner is a  professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center. He is the author of the 2009 book Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life and was the "scientific sounding board" on the 2015 Pixar film Inside Out. His new book is The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence.