The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence

GGSC Director Dacher Keltner appears at the Commonwealth Club in SF to discuss his new book, The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence

Monday Night Philosophy at The Commonwealth Club investigates a revolutionary reconsideration of power.

It is taken for granted that power corrupts. This is reinforced culturally by everything from Machiavelli to contemporary politics. But enduring power only comes from empathy and giving because power is given to us by other people. This is the crux of the power paradox: by fundamentally misunderstanding the behaviors that helped us to gain power in the first place we set ourselves up to fall from power. We can’t retain it because we’ve never understood it correctly. Dr. Keltner lays out exactly—in twenty original “Power Principles”—how to retain power, why power can be a demonstrably good thing, and the terrible consequences of letting those around us languish in powerlessness.

This conversation with Prof. Keltner marks the publication of his new book, The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence.