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Welcome to The Psychology Podcast with Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, where we give you insights into the mind, brain, behavior and creativity. Each episode will feature a guest who will stimulate your mind, and give you a greater understanding of yourself, others, and the world we live in. Hopefully, we’ll also provide a glimpse into human possibility! Thanks for listening and enjoy the podcast.

Oct 4, 2017

"Power is given, not grabbed.” — Dacher Keltner

Today I’m really excited to have Dr. Dacher Keltner join me for his second appearance on The Psychology Podcast!

Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the faculty director of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center. A renowned expert in the biological and evolutionary origins of human emotion, Dr. Keltner studies the science of compassion, awe, love, and beauty, and how emotions shape our moral intuition. His research interests also span issues of power, status, inequality, and social class. He is the author of the best-selling book Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life and of The Compassionate Instinct.

His latest book is The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence.

In our conversation we discuss several of Dacher’s ideas surrounding power including:

  • The unique definition of power he presents in the book
  • The recent development in power research of the 2 paths to power:
    • Domination, Manipulation, Coercion
    • Status, Respect, Strong Ties
  • The myth of power stereotypes
  • The problems of power
    • The challenges of getting it
    • The difficulties of maintaining it
    • The dangers of becoming addicted to it
  • The Humility pathway of enduring power

Links:

The Power Paradox is available on Amazon

Follow Dacher’s Greater Good Lab on Twitter

[Book] Good to Great – Jim Collins (mentioned-“The final stage of leadership is service”)

[Book] On Tyranny -Timothy Snyder (mentioned-“People give power to tyrants”)

[Book] Soft Power – Joseph Nye (mentioned)