This article was taken from the August 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
It's official -- power is enjoyable.
Science suggests that a bit of clout may actually change your brain to let you experience more pleasure. Those with greater social status could be more likely to experience life as rewarding and stimulating because there
are more targets for dopamine to act upon within the striatum.1
Posture goes a long way in increasing testosterone and decreasing
stress. Subjects manipulated into expansive poses for two minutes reported greater feelings of power than subjects manipulated into restrictive poses for the same amount of time.2
Simply making a fist also causes us to perceive ourselves as more assertive and esteemed, and to display stronger associations between the self-concept and power.3
If that fails, have a go at butting in. Interrupters gain in status and targets of interruption lose status.4
But be careful. Experience of power increases dehumanisation -- the process of denying essential elements of "humanness" in other people.5
\1. Martinez, D 2010, 'Dopamine Type 2/3 Receptor Availability in the Striatum and Social Status in Human Volunteers', Biological Psychiatry, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 275-278. 2. Carney, DR, Cuddy, AJC, & Yap, AJ 2010, 'Power Posing', Psychological Science, vol. 21, pp. 1363-1368. 3. Schubert, TW, & Koole, SL 2009, 'The Embodied Self', Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 828-834. 4. Farley, SD 2008,
'Attaining Status at the Expense of Likeability', Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol 32, no. 4, pp. 241-260. 5. Lammers, J 2010, 'Power Increases Dehumanization', Group Process Intergroup Relations, vol. 14 no. 1, pp. 113-126.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
