Powerful people more guilty of 'moral hypocrisy', study finds - Telegraph.
Experts say that these so-called "powerful people" also make stricter moral judgements of others - while doing exactly as they please.
Professor Adam Galinsky, from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois, said:
"According to our research, power and influence can cause a severe disconnect between public judgment and private behaviour, and as a result, the powerful are stricter in their judgment of others while being more lenient toward their own actions.
"And this research is especially relevant to the biggest scandals of 2009, as we look back on how private behaviour often contradicted the public stance of particular individuals in power.
"For instance, we saw some politicians use public funds for private benefits while calling for smaller government, or have extramarital affairs while advocating family values.
"Similarly, we witnessed CEOs of major financial institutions accepting executive bonuses while simultaneously asking for government bail-out money on behalf of their companies."
I guess we knew all that really.
But we need to have it said time and again.
Precisely because we need to remind those in power that we know it.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
This reminds me of what was said a study that Transparency International published exactly 10 years ago : TI Source Book 2000 (http://www.transparency.org/publications/sourcebook).
In the first chapter, TI uses a short definition of corruption that is relevant: “the misuse of entrusted power for private benefit”. In this there are three elements (i) a misuse of power; (ii) a power that is entrusted (i.e. it can be in the private sector just as much as in the public); and (iii) a
private benefit (i.e. not necessary personal to the person misusing
the power, but including as well members of his or her immediate family and friends)