This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantan.

When you imagine a powerful person, what comes to mind?

Gaffney, we had our own brand of diplomacy.

Shake with your right hand, but hold a rock in your left.

Perhaps you don't picture someone as evil as Frank Underwood from House of Cards, but

you also probably don't think of someone very nice.

You don't normally associate power with qualities like compassion and kindness.

But the psychologist, Docker Kantner at UC Berkeley says, maybe we should.

What the science is finding is that kids at school, kids in summer camps, people in colleges,

people in organizations, if they are emotionally intelligent and really focus on others and

even practice generosity, they rise in social power.

Their studies power dynamics and he's found something that might seem counterintuitive.

If you think of power as all about Machu valiance scheming, the people would display altruism,

kindness, social intelligence.

Docker finds that these are the people who gain power and respect from their peers.

But there's a catch.

Once these people become powerful, power tends to undermine the very qualities that help

them get there in the first place.

There's something about the seductions of power that makes you lose sight of ethics and

other people's interests.

Docker Kantner is the author of the new book, The Power Power Docs.

How we gain and lose influence.

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