Power changes people. It’s not just a cynical thing your uncle says at Thanksgiving; it’s a biological and psychological reality that researchers have been documenting for decades. When we talk about power corruption and lies, we aren't just talking about some mustache-twirling villain in a movie. We’re talking about the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the local school board head, or even the admin of a massive Discord server.
Power feels good. It feels like a drug. But that high comes with a nasty side effect: it erodes the part of the brain responsible for empathy.
Back in 2006, Dr. Adam Galinsky and his team at Northwestern University ran a study that sounded almost silly but revealed something haunting. They asked participants to draw the letter "E" on their own foreheads. People who felt powerful were three times more likely to draw the "E" so it was legible to themselves but backwards to everyone else. They literally lost the ability to see the world from someone else’s perspective. That’s the seed of the problem. When you stop seeing others as people with their own valid viewpoints, lying to them becomes a lot easier. It becomes "strategic communication." It becomes a tool for "the greater good." Or, more honestly, it becomes a way to keep that power from slipping away.
The Science Behind the Smokescreen
We’ve all seen it. A politician gets caught in a blatant fabrication, and instead of apologizing, they double down. Why? Because the brain on power starts to function differently.
Dr. Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, has spent twenty years studying this. He calls it the "Power Paradox." We gain power through traits like empathy and collaboration, but once we have it, those traits vanish. We become impulsive. We ignore risks. Most importantly, we stop caring about social norms. If you don't care about the norm of "telling the truth," then lying is just another move on the chessboard. It’s not even a moral failure in the eyes of the powerful; it’s just efficiency.
Think about the Enron scandal or the collapse of Lehman Brothers. These weren't just "mistakes." They were built on a foundation of power corruption and lies that were told so often the people telling them started to believe their own hype. They created an insular world where the rules of reality didn't apply.
Brain Chemistry and the "Hubris Syndrome"
Lord David Owen, a former British Foreign Secretary and a neurologist, actually coined a term for this: Hubris Syndrome. It’s not a formal psychiatric diagnosis yet, but it describes a pattern of behavior seen in leaders who hold power for too long.
- A belief that they are only accountable to "History" or "God."
- Loss of contact with reality.
- Restlessness and impulsivity.
- An obsession with their own image.
When you're in that headspace, the truth is whatever you say it is. You aren't lying to cover a crime; you're "shaping the narrative." It’s a subtle distinction that allows people to sleep at night while they’re actively deceiving millions.
Case Studies in Institutional Deceit
Let’s get specific. Look at the Volkswagen "Dieselgate" scandal. Engineers and executives didn't just wake up one day and decide to be evil. They were under immense pressure from the top to meet impossible standards. The power structure at VW was so rigid and top-down that telling the truth—"we can't do this"—meant professional suicide. So, they lied. They installed "defeat devices" to cheat emissions tests. They chose the lie because the power above them demanded a reality that didn't exist.
Then there’s the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Honestly, it’s the textbook example of how power corruption and lies feed off each other. Holmes didn't just lie to investors; she created a culture of fear. Employees who questioned the technology were fired or threatened with lawsuits. She leveraged the power of her board—which included former Secretaries of State—to silence dissent. The more power she gathered, the more elaborate the lies had to become to protect that power.
It’s a cycle.
Lie to get power.
Use power to hide the lie.
Tell bigger lies to keep the power.
Eventually, the gravity of reality pulls the whole thing down, but the damage to the public trust is already done.
Why We Let Them Get Away With It
This is the uncomfortable part. We’re kind of complicit. Humans have a natural tendency to want to follow strong leaders. It’s an evolutionary leftover. We crave certainty, and liars are often very, very certain.
Psychologists call it "motivated reasoning." If we like a leader’s goals, we’re willing to overlook their "stretches of the truth." We tell ourselves that the ends justify the means. We see the corruption, but we label it as "tough leadership."
The Illusion of Competence
There’s also the "confident idiot" problem. People who are high in power often overestimate their own competence. This confidence is infectious. We see someone who is incredibly sure of themselves, and our brains trick us into thinking they must be right. Even if they’re lying through their teeth, their lack of hesitation makes the lie feel like a fact.
Breaking the Cycle of Power Corruption and Lies
Can we actually stop this? Maybe not entirely, but we can make it harder for the rot to set in. It’s about building systems that don't rely on the "goodness" of a leader, because as we’ve seen, power tends to eat that goodness for breakfast.
Transparency is the obvious one, but it’s more than just "opening the books." It’s about creating a culture where "no" is a valid answer. In the airline industry, they have something called Crew Resource Management. It’s a system designed to encourage junior co-pilots to speak up if the captain (the "power") is making a mistake. It has saved thousands of lives because it breaks the hierarchy when the hierarchy is wrong.
In business and politics, we need the equivalent of CRM.
- Term Limits: Not just in government, but in corporate boards. Fresh blood prevents the "inner circle" rot.
- Whistleblower Protections: Real ones. Not the kind that get you blacklisted, but the kind that treat you like a hero.
- Independent Oversight: If the person checking your work reports to you, they aren't checking your work.
Actionable Steps for the Rest of Us
We can't all pass laws or fire CEOs, but we can change how we interact with power in our own lives. It starts with skepticism. Not the "everything is a conspiracy" kind of skepticism, but a healthy, grounded demand for evidence.
Watch for the "I" vs "We." Leaders who are starting to slip into hubris often stop using "we" and start using "I" for successes and "they" for failures. It’s a linguistic red flag.
👉 See also: Turner Guilford Knight Detention Center: What Most People Get Wrong
Demand the "How." When someone in power makes a big claim, ignore the "What" and focus on the "How." Liars hate the "How." They want you to focus on the vision, not the mechanics. If the mechanics don't make sense, the vision is probably a lie.
Check your own biases. Are you giving someone a pass just because they’re on "your team"? That’s how power corruption and lies find a foothold. They rely on our tribalism to protect them from scrutiny.
Support local journalism. It sounds cliché, but the people most likely to catch the lies are the ones who are actually in the room, asking the boring questions about zoning laws and budget line items. When local news dies, corruption thrives because nobody is watching the "small" lies that eventually grow into big ones.
Power doesn't have to corrupt, but it usually does if it's left in the dark. The only real antiseptic is a relentless, somewhat annoying commitment to the truth, even when the truth is inconvenient or makes our favorite leaders look bad. It’s not about being cynical; it’s about being awake.