Research Hit: The Surprising Truth of Why Powerful People can be Toxic

We’ve all heard the stories of toxic bosses, and powerful people who happily destroy other people’s lives, and show no compassion to lesser individuals - some research now shows the surprising reason

There is a rich (pun intended) literature on the so-called dark triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy) of leaders. These seem particularly prevalent in senior leaders, anywhere from 5%-50% exhibiting these traits depending on whose research you read.

There are many reasons for this — I reported in a previous Quick Hit on how narcissists feel like victims — but this recent research University of California, San Diego, takes ordinary people and manipulates their power to see what happens in their judgements and decision making.

The results are not pretty. So what happened?