There is certainly evidence that there are corrupting aspects of power. Power leads people to place their own interests ahead of others’ needs or goals. It also appears to lead individuals to “objectify” others (to see them as tools to obtain their instrumental goals) and to see relationships as more peripheral. Those given power are more likely to make self-interested decisions when faced with a moral hazard and are more willing to denigrate others. Power also leads to overconfident decision making.

Power does appear to have some disturbing effects on us, but it is more complicated than that. It doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, and there are even positive effects of power. One study found, for example, that while power made people behave in a self-serving manner, when accountability for this behavior was initiated, the self-serving behavior stopped. We have the means to blunt the negative effects of power. One study showed that simply expressing gratitude toward powerful others makes them less likely to act aggressively against us.

Power energizes and increases motivation to achieve goals. One study found, for example, that a desire to help others translated into actual work behavior when people felt a sense of power. It is not so much that power corrupts as it reveals what we value. Another study found that power led to self-interested behavior only in those with a weak moral identity (the degree to which morals are core to someone’s identity). In those with a strong moral identity, power enhanced their moral awareness and willingness to act.