There is a popular image that people who are in positions of
power are really unfulfilled. Perhaps
they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Perhaps being able to choose to do what you
want carries a psychological cost. Or,
perhaps this belief is just wishful thinking on the part of people who do not
have power in their lives. Maybe, those
people who have the power to do what they want in life really are more
satisfied than those who don’t.
This question was explored in a paper in the March, 2013
issue of Psychological Science
by Yona Kifer, Daniel Heller, Wei Qi Elaine Perunovic, and Adam Galinsky.
These researchers suggested that having power provides
people with the ability to do what they want to do in life. That opportunity creates a feeling of
authenticity in life. That is, powerful
people can act like themselves rather than having to act as others would like
them to be. This authenticity should
make powerful people happy.
This proposal was tested in two ways.
First, the researchers gave a series of surveys to a few
hundred Israeli adults. These surveys
measured people’s satisfaction with their work, romantic relationships, and
friendships. The surveys also explored
how much power people felt they had in each of these situations. In addition, a series of questions asked
about whether people felt like they could act authentically in their work,
romantic, and friendship lives. The researchers
also measured a number of variables that might also predict life satisfaction
like extraversion, neuroticism, and overall well-being.
In each of these roles, people were more satisfied with that
aspect of their lives when they felt that they had power to control that aspect
of their lives than when they did not.
So, people’s work life was better if they were in a position of power
than if they were not. People felt better
about their romantic relationships when they felt like they had some control in
the relationship. People enjoyed their
friendships more if they had some power within their group of friends.
The best predictor of this relationship between power and
satisfaction was authenticity. That is, these
surveys suggested that power increased people’s satisfaction with life because
it enabled people to act they way they wanted to in those situations.
The researchers then used a more experimental approach to
address the same question. In one study,
participants were asked to think either about situations in which they had
power or in which they had no power.
After this priming task, people rated how authentically they can act in
life as well as their overall feelings of happiness. People who thought about having power in
their lives rated themselves as being able to live more authentically than
people who thought about being powerless.
The people who thought about having power also gave higher ratings of
overall happiness than those who thought about having no power.
One final study asked a group of people to think about
situations in their lives in which they were able to be true to themselves
(that is, to be authentic) or situations in which they had to be
inauthentic. In this study, people who
thought about situations in which they were authentic rated themselves as
happier than those who thought about situations in which they were inauthentic.
Putting all this together, then, these studies suggest that
if you are in a position of power, then it enables you to live your life on
your own terms. And that authenticity
creates a general sense of well-being.
So, power does make people happy.
There is one thing to watch out for in all of this,
though. While having power can make you
happier, seeking power does not make you happier. There is quite
a bit of evidence that people who spend their lives seeking power do not
focus on the intrinsic joy of life. So,
people who seek power are actually less happy than those who do not.
Is there a way out of this paradox? That is, can you have power without seeking
it?
One way to become powerful is to try to focus on attaining
power. This kind of scheming may
succeed, but it is likely to make you unhappy.
A second way to become powerful is to spend your life
getting things done. In a work setting,
that means focusing on the contribution you can make to your organization (and
making sure that people above you in the organization recognize your achievements). In your social life that means doing things
for the people around you. When you are
effective in the things you do, people often recognize that. In addition, getting things done makes you
happy.
If you consistently do things in your life that help you and
others achieve goals, then your journey is a happy one. And over time, you will find that you rise to
a position of power within your network.
And that makes you happy as well.
