💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 6017.gmi captured on 2023-06-16 at 17:43:52. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

View Raw

More Information

⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)

➡️ Next capture (2024-05-10)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Strange Relationship Between Power and Loneliness

2016-04-29 09:04:43

Adam Waytz

April 27, 2016

Both power and loneliness are studied extensively in the social sciences, yet

few researchers have examined the relationship between the two. So my

colleagues and I conducted eight studies to do exactly that, finding evidence

that it s not quite as lonely at the top as most of us assume. In our research,

attaining power actually led people to feel less isolated from others, and

lacking it led them to feel more isolated.

While debunking conventional wisdom can be satisfying, it s important to think

about the limits of these conclusions. Consider this comment by Thomas J.

Saporito, chair and CEO of the leadership consulting firm RHR International: I

ve spoken with 200 plus CEOs, [and] there are precious few that didn t, in the

privacy of our discussions, talk about loneliness. Saporito s observation

syncs up with polling data by Harris Interactive Service Bureau in which about

half of CEOs reported experiencing some loneliness in their role.

Why the disconnect between those leaders experiences and our findings? Here

are a few possible explanations.

Sustained and temporary power are two different beasts. For starters, it s

critical to remember that our research involved temporarily inducing people to

experience high or low power and then measuring their loneliness. In some

studies, for instance, we randomly assigned subjects to a boss role, giving

them a few dollars and telling them they could allocate as much or as little of

this windfall as they d like to a subordinate participant. In another, we

asked subjects to ruminate either on the ways they have power in their lives or

on the ways they lack it.

People in the high-power conditions consistently reported less loneliness than

those in low-power or neutral conditions but it s possible that experiencing

a fleeting sense of power boosts social connection, whereas occupying a

high-power role for a sustained period generates feelings of isolation. This

distinction warrants further examination.

Having sole responsibility for tough decisions might make a difference. In a

study by School for CEOs, 93% of chairs and CEOs indicated that prospective

CEOs require more preparation for the role than they typically get, especially

to ready themselves for the loneliness and ultimate accountability that lie

ahead. One respondent stated, People underestimate the human dynamics of the

situation, whether it be loneliness or the reality that if you screw up, there

s nobody to help.

The stakes were lower in the kinds of judgment calls my colleagues and I looked

at in our eight studies, so it may be that power increases loneliness when it

involves sole responsibility for exceedingly tough decisions nobody wants to

make how to cut costs, whom to fire, how to change an organization s course.

We actually found evidence for this pattern in an unpublished study while

examining the boundary conditions of our other findings. We asked some people

to imagine being a head doctor with sole responsibility for deciding to take a

premature baby off a ventilator; we asked others to imagine being a junior

doctor who observes this decision but has no responsibility. The first group

reported greater loneliness than the second.

Subjective and objective isolation don t always match up. A study by Stanford s

Center for Leadership Development and Research found that nearly two-thirds of

CEOs are relatively isolated, receiving no coaching or leadership advice from

outside coaches or consultants. This finding speaks to an important distinction

between objective and subjective isolation. That is, the number of connections

you have does not necessarily correspond to how connected you feel. You can

have very few trusted advisers and feel socially connected; you can have

hundreds and feel alone.

By hierarchy s very nature, CEOs are often quite objectively alone at their

organizational level and may have few links to outside advisers. Yet,

critically, our studies measured how connected people felt, consistently

finding that no matter how many connections people actually had, greater power

meant decreased subjective isolation.

Clearly, the relationship between power and loneliness is complicated, and we

urge future research to examine its nuances. Our work merely provides a first

step toward greater understanding.

Adam Waytz is an associate professor of management and organizations at

Northwestern University s Kellogg School of Management.