Why Do People Change the Moment They Gain Power? Understanding Power Syndrome

The "Power Paradox" — power is gained through empathy, then erases it

Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, calls this the power paradox: power is earned through social intelligence, responsibility, and the ability to work well with others — but once someone gains it, they tend to become more impulsive and worse at understanding other people's perspectives.

His research found that powerful leaders more often rely on stereotypes when judging others, engage in less careful reasoning, interrupt other people more often, and show markedly less empathetic behavior than they did before gaining power. Keltner even compares this pattern to the behavior of patients with damage to the brain's frontal lobe — the region largely responsible for self-control and social judgment.

When it gets severe, this is what's called "hubris syndrome"

David Owen — a former UK Foreign Secretary who also has a background in neurology — studied a similar pattern in United States presidents and UK prime ministers over the past century, and named it hubris syndrome. He maintains this isn't an innate personality disorder, but a condition that's acquired — emerging after someone holds significant power for a long time with little outside check on it.

Its traits include: seeing the world as a stage for self-glorification, focusing too much on image over substance, excessive self-confidence to the point of ignoring other people's input, believing one's decisions will surely be vindicated by history, and starting to lose touch with reality on the ground. The difference from an ordinary personality disorder: hubris syndrome tends to fade once that power is lost — meaning this really is about position, not purely about the person's underlying character.

Why this can happen to anyone, not just "bad people"

The most important part of this research: this pattern doesn't require bad intent to emerge. Power gradually reduces honest feedback — other people become more careful about criticizing, more likely to just agree, and less likely to deliver bad news. Without realizing it, the powerful person starts losing the mirror that used to correct their behavior, and over time their own point of view starts to feel like the only correct one.

The less outside control or oversight there is, the more room this pattern has to grow. This is why power syndrome often shows up precisely in positions that face the least challenge — not because the person is different, but because the environment around them has stopped offering honest feedback.

Signs worth recognizing — in others, or in yourself

• Asking for input less, giving orders more. Two-way discussion turns into one-way instruction, and feedback starts to feel like an interruption rather than something worth considering.
• Criticism starts to feel like a personal attack. Reactions to differing input become far more defensive than before, even over small things.
• Feeling like your own decisions rarely need questioning. A conviction emerges that your own judgment must be correct, without needing much verification from others.
• The people around you start going quiet more often. If fewer and fewer people are willing to deliver bad news or disagree, that's a sign the feedback loop is starting to close.

What can help guard against this pattern

The good news is that, because this is about condition and environment — not simply character — this pattern can be guarded against from the start. Keltner himself emphasizes the importance of continuing to practice the very traits that first carried someone into their position: keep asking questions, keep listening before deciding, and deliberately seek out people willing to disagree instead of only surrounding yourself with people who always agree.

Regular reflection also helps catch this shift earlier — before it becomes an entrenched habit. Writing down how you responded to feedback or criticism today, and comparing it to how you used to respond, is one of the simplest ways to see whether this pattern is starting to show up in yourself.

rumputhijau was built for reflective habits like this: a quick check-in every morning and evening, with AI that responds personally every time you write — so small shifts in how you think and respond to others don't slip past your own attention.

References

• Keltner, D. (2016). The Power Paradox. Greater Good Magazine, UC Berkeley.
• Owen, D., & Davidson, J. (2009). Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years. Brain, 132(5), 1396–1406.
• Sadler-Smith, E., Akstinaite, V., Robinson, G., & Wray, T. (2017). Hubristic leadership: A review. Leadership, 13(5), 525–548.