Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us

 Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klaas

Do psychopaths aspire for positions of control or does power make people psychopathic? The answers seems to be a little bit of both. The most severe examples are obvious. However, positions of leadership tend to have more than there fair share of people with psychopathic tendencies. 

What do we do about it? One solution is to better control who gets into positions of power. A more diverse talent pool can help. If we look for people similar to those that are already there, we are likely to find more "corruptible" personalities. By broadening the pool, we can have more of what we want. The book compares different police forces. In remote Alaska, almost nobody wants to be a police officer, leaving ex-cons as the most common people filling the job. The police force in general has many military veterans. This leads to militarization - especially when "toys" such as tanks are on offer. On the other hand, New Zealand specifically tries to recruit those interested in helping and serving - with an emphasis on groups not represented on the force. 

For those in power, some things can be done to help reduce negative outcomes. Again, forms of diversity helpful. Rotating people to different positions and change the groups that work together help reduce "empire building". It also helps to reduce the "corruption" that may occur when the same groups work together. It is also valuable to have oversight for the leaders. (Oversight for underlings is common, but leaders need it also.)