Saturday, September 19, 2026
Science

Power breeds suspicion: In cases of wrongdoing, people point to leaders more quickly

People with power are more quickly singled out as the culprit when something goes wrong but it is unclear who made the mistake. That is shown by a series of studies by researchers at the University of Amsterdam. In one, they analyzed almost 100,000 everyday conflicts on the Reddit page "Am I the Ass...

Power breeds suspicion: In cases of wrongdoing, people point to leaders more quickly
Image: Phys.org
People with power are more quickly singled out as the culprit when something goes wrong but it is unclear who made the mistake. That is shown by a series of studies by researchers at the University of Amsterdam. In one, they analyzed almost 100,000 everyday conflicts on the Reddit page "Am I the Asshole?" According to the researchers, people with power are more readily blamed because others think they can "get away with anything." The findings are published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Originally published at Phys.org

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