How Power Corrupts People Power can be a negative possession when sitting in the wrong hands. It is like a parasite to the mind. It starts small, but quickly turns into an infectious and growing problem that corrupts the brain. It seems as though when presented with even a small amount of power, most people begin to feel superior to everyone around them and develop a thirst for more control. They need to continue adding to their overall power and will go to great measures to ensure this happens. Power presents itself in different forms, but is especially noticeable when dealing with positions of rank or status. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Saul McLeod’s “The Stanford Prison Experiment”, and Melissa Dittmann’s “What makes good people do bad…show more content… In this experiment, the illusion of power the guards are given blinds them to reality. It shows them that they did not know they possessed. This experiment proves that when one person is given a position of higher rank over another, it can have major implications on the mindset of that higher ranked individual, resulting in authoritative behavior. Anonymity is one of many contributing factors that can lead to a person being corrupted by power. This theme is illustrated in Melissa Dittmann’s “What makes good people do bad things?” In her article, she references: “What's more, a person's anonymity can be induced by acting in an anonymity-conferring environment that adds to the pleasure of destruction, vandalism and the power of being in control, Zimbardo noted” (Dittman P 12). Anonymity can be powerful because it lessens personal…show more content… Also in her article, Dittmann addresses the following: “The experiment shows that institutional forces and peer pressure can lead normal student volunteer guards to disregard the potential harm of their actions on the other student prisoners” (Dittmann P 14). Because of the power that comes with their title, the student volunteers acting as guards are choosing to disregard the way in which they come across those acting as prisoners. Now imagine that the guards feel safe by hiding behind a shield of anonymity. Their actions are likely to be far worse and more degrading to the prisoners if they know that they won’t be held accountable for their behaviors. This idea of anonymity being linked to abuse of power is a real thing that we see often, and it can persuade good people to do just the same as not so good people. Add in a higher position, as in the examples listed here, and it is clear that power really does corrupt. Power corrupts all on its own, even without anonymity, which leaves one to assume that under the protection of anonymity people in positions of power are likely to display controlling actions of deeper negativity and
