How Power Corrupts Your Instinct for Cooperation [greatergood.berkeley.edu]

Carey Sipp 7/2/2112:00 PM

By Anne Brice, Greater Good Magazine, June 18, 2021

Emiliana Simon-Thomas is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center, where she co-teaches The Science of Happiness, a free, eight-week online course that “explores the roots of a happy, meaningful life.” She earned her Ph.D. in psychology from UC Berkeley in 2004, studying how emotional and cognitive processes interact to shape behavior and brain activity.

In the interview below, Simon-Thomas talks about how humans are a collective species that thrives on collaboration. But power and privilege, she says, can corrupt anyone — even the best, most morally guided people. The good news? There’s an antidote.

A Fiat Vox podcast episode featuring this interview with Simon-Thomas was originally published on Berkeley News in 2017. This is a new version that has been rewritten and remixed.

[Please click here to read more.]

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