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NPR's podcasts, Power May Increase Promiscuity

Power May Increase Promiscuity

And Mark Sanford is one of the cascade of politicians linked to sex scandals.

If you print out the Wikipedia page for federal political sex scandals, in the U.S. alone, it runs to six single-spaced pages. And recently, it's gotten two names longer, both of them congressman from New York. NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam explains why so many powerful people get caught up in sexual indiscretions.

SHANKAR VEDANTAM: The confessions we've heard in recent years from powerful men and sex scandals all sounded alike.

Listen to Congressman Anthony Weiner, Senator John Ensign, governors Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford, and Senator David Vitter. Representative ANTHONY WEINER (Democrat, New York): I haven't told the truth and I've done things I deeply regret.

I brought pain to people I care about the most and the people who believed in me... Senator JOHN ENSIGN (Republican, Nevada): Last year, I had an affair.

I violated the vows... Mr.

ELIOT SPITZER (Democrat, Former Governor, New York): I've acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family, and that violates my or any sense of right and wrong. Mr.

MARK SANFORD (Republican, Former Governor, South Carolina): I've been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with a... Senator DAVID VITTER (Republican, Louisiana): I am completely responsible...

Rep.

WEINER: And for that I'm deeply sorry... Mr.

SPITZER: I'm truly sorry... Mr.

Sanford: And I'm so very, very sorry. VEDANTAM: Yes, the confessions and apologies follow a familiar script.

But there's something else: all these are men's voices. Don't women ever get involved in sex scandals? We put the question to a panel of pedestrians in downtown Washington. Here are Brendan McNamara, a legal assistant, and Debbie Wilcox, a visitor from Canada. Mr.

BRENDAN MCNAMARA (Legal Assistant): I don't want to speculate, but I think that women have done it less. Ms.

DEBBIE WILCOX: I think it goes along with the culture and the society and the position of power and taking advantage of people that are not in a position of power. VEDANTAM: So would you imagine that women would do the same thing in positions of power?

Ms.

WILCOX: Never. (Soundbite of laughter)

VEDANTAM: They're right and they're wrong.

Power is the problem, but it turns out it is just as much a problem for women as for men. Professor Joris Lammers in the Netherlands, recently conducted a survey of more than a thousand professionals.

He asked him to describe whether they were in positions of power in their workplaces. He then asked... Mr.

JORIS LAMMERS (Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University Professor): Whether they ever committed adultery, whether they foresee that they ever would engage in a adulterous relationship. And, yeah, we found it affects both men and women. The more they have power, the more they are likely to engage in infidelity. VEDANTAM: Lammers found that the most powerful people in his survey were 30 percent more likely to have affairs than the least powerful people.

The most powerful people were also having way more affairs. And this is not just about the Dutch. Studies done in other places have shown the same correlation between adultery and power.

And there is preliminary research that might explain why power increases infidelity. When you stick people inside a brain scanner and give them a fleeting sense of power, the way they view risks and rewards changes. Mr.

LAMMERS: So you can even see this in brain activation. If people feel powerful, and you can see that brain structure associated with positive things - with rewards - is just much more activated than the part that is steered towards preventing the bad things from happening. VEDANTAM: So when you get a sense of power, you start to focus on all the things that could go right.

And you get blinders on for all the things that could go wrong. But that's not all. Psychologist Jon Maner, at Florida State University, recently sat heterosexual college students down with an opposite sex partner.

Maner found that when students were given a brief feeling of power, they were more likely to start flirting with the stranger sitting next to them. Take away the power, the flirting disappears - and it wasn't just the men. Women given power behaved exactly the same. Mr.

JON MANER (Florida State University, Department of Psychology Professor): Power-holders tended to touch their subordinates more, they maintained more direct eye contact. They behaved in an overall more flirtatious manner. VEDANTAM: Power also causes both men and women to see themselves as more attractive than they really are.

And it makes perfectly innocuous comments from subordinates and strangers sound like come-ons. Volunteers with the power believe their lab partners were acting in sexual ways even when they were not, Maner said. In other words, when you say hello to someone, an ordinary person thinks you said hello. A powerful person thinks you meant hel-lo, and it doesn't take much power to trigger this. Mr.

MANER: I don't think this is going to be limited to powerful politicians or CEOs at big companies by any means. I think this can happen in every day social interactions. In fact, in our own research, just giving people power over a small amount of money in a short laboratory interaction was sufficient to elicit this overestimation of sexual interest. VEDANTAM: But none of these studies explain why there are so many more sex scandals among men.

Our panel of pedestrians in Washington included Barley Bahla(ph), a local writer. Powerful men tend to be at the center of these scandals, she said, because men are at the center of power in our society.

Ms.

BARLEY BAHLA (Writer): Well, women in power have done some pretty inappropriate things. Think of Catherine the Great. VEDANTAM: Catherine the Great was an 18th century Russian empress, one of the most powerful women in the history of the world.

Over three decades, she took up with a slew of lovers. When she grew bored she discarded them by dipping into the national coffers to hush them up. Frankly, her sexual escapades make uploading dirty pictures to Twitter sound tame. Shankar Vedantam, NPR News.


Power May Increase Promiscuity El poder puede aumentar la promiscuidad O poder pode aumentar a promiscuidade Влада може збільшити розбещеність 权力可能增加滥交

And Mark Sanford is one of the cascade of politicians linked to sex scandals. そして、マーク・サンフォードは、セックス・スキャンダルに関連した政治家のカスケードの1つです。 Mark Sanford, seks skandallarıyla bağlantılı politikacıların çağlayanlarından biridir.

If you print out the Wikipedia page for federal political sex scandals, in the U.S. ウィキペディアのページを連邦政治のセックススキャンダルのために印刷すると、米国で ABD'de federal politik seks skandalları için Wikipedia sayfasını yazdırdıysanız alone, it runs to six single-spaced pages. alleine läuft es auf sechs Seiten mit einem Abstand. Yalnız, altı tek aralıklı sayfalara çalışır. And recently, it’s gotten two names longer, both of them congressman from New York. Und in letzter Zeit sind zwei Namen länger geworden, beide Kongressabgeordnete aus New York. Son zamanlarda, her ikisi de New York'tan gelen kongre üyesi olmak üzere iki isim daha kazanmıştır. NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam explains why so many powerful people get caught up in sexual indiscretions. NPR bilim muhabiri Shankar Vedantam, bu kadar güçlü insanın neden cinsel sakatlıklara yakalandığını açıklıyor.

SHANKAR VEDANTAM: The confessions we’ve heard in recent years from powerful men and sex scandals all sounded alike. SHANKAR VEDANTAM: Son yıllarda güçlü erkek ve seks skandallarından duyduğumuz itirafların hepsi birbirine benziyordu.

Listen to Congressman Anthony Weiner, Senator John Ensign, governors Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford, and Senator David Vitter. Kongre üyesi Anthony Weiner, Senatör John Ensign, Valiler Eliot Spitzer ve Mark Sanford ve Senatör David Vitter'ı dinleyin. Representative ANTHONY WEINER (Democrat, New York): I haven’t told the truth and I’ve done things I deeply regret. Temsilci ANTHONY WEINER (Democrat, New York): Doğruyu söylemedim ve çok pişman olduğum şeyleri yaptım.

I brought pain to people I care about the most and the people who believed in me... En çok önemsediğim insanlara ve bana inananlara acı çektim. Senator JOHN ENSIGN (Republican, Nevada): Last year, I had an affair. Senatör JOHN ENSIGN (Cumhuriyetçi, Nevada): Geçen sene bir işim vardı.

I violated the vows... Yeminini ihlal ettim ... Mr.

ELIOT SPITZER (Democrat, Former Governor, New York): I’ve acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family, and that violates my or any sense of right and wrong. ELIOT SPITZER (Demokrat, ehemaliger Gouverneur von New York): Ich habe auf eine Weise gehandelt, die meine Verpflichtungen gegenüber meiner Familie verletzt und gegen mein oder jedes Gefühl von Recht und Unrecht verstößt. ELIOT SPITZER (Demokrat, Eski Vali, New York): Aileme karşı yükümlülüklerimi ihlal eden bir şekilde hareket ettim ve bu, benim veya herhangi bir doğru ve yanlış duygusunu ihlal ediyor. Mr. Herr.

MARK SANFORD (Republican, Former Governor, South Carolina): I’ve been unfaithful to my wife. MARK SANFORD (Republikaner, ehemaliger Gouverneur von South Carolina): Ich war meiner Frau untreu. MARK SANFORD (Cumhuriyetçi, Eski Vali, Güney Carolina): Eşime sadakatsiz davrandım. I developed a relationship with a... Senator DAVID VITTER (Republican, Louisiana): I am completely responsible...

Rep. Cum.

WEINER: And for that I’m deeply sorry... Mr.

SPITZER: I’m truly sorry... Mr.

Sanford: And I’m so very, very sorry. VEDANTAM: Yes, the confessions and apologies follow a familiar script. VEDANTAM: Evet, itiraflar ve özürler tanıdık bir senaryoyu takip ediyor.

But there’s something else: all these are men’s voices. Ama başka bir şey var: bunların hepsi erkek sesleri. Don’t women ever get involved in sex scandals? Kadınlar seks skandallarına hiç bulaşmaz mı? We put the question to a panel of pedestrians in downtown Washington. Мы задали вопрос группе пешеходов в центре Вашингтона. Soruyu Washington şehir merkezindeki bir yaya paneline koyduk. Here are Brendan McNamara, a legal assistant, and Debbie Wilcox, a visitor from Canada. İşte yasal bir asistan olan Brendan McNamara ve Kanadalı bir ziyaretçi olan Debbie Wilcox. Mr.

BRENDAN MCNAMARA (Legal Assistant): I don’t want to speculate, but I think that women have done it less. BRENDAN MCNAMARA (Hukuk Asistanı): Ben spekülasyon yapmak istemiyorum, ama kadınların daha az yaptığını düşünüyorum. Ms.

DEBBIE WILCOX: I think it goes along with the culture and the society and the position of power and taking advantage of people that are not in a position of power. DEBBIE WILCOX: Bence kültür ve toplum ile iktidarın konumu ve iktidar konumunda olmayan insanlardan yararlanma. VEDANTAM: So would you imagine that women would do the same thing in positions of power? VEDANTAM: Kadınların aynı şeyi iktidar pozisyonlarında yapabileceklerini düşünür müsün?

Ms.

WILCOX: Never. (Soundbite of laughter) (Kahkaha sesi)

VEDANTAM: They’re right and they’re wrong.

Power is the problem, but it turns out it is just as much a problem for women as for men. Güç problemdir, ama bu, kadınlar için erkeklere olduğu kadar bir problemdir. Professor Joris Lammers in the Netherlands, recently conducted a survey of more than a thousand professionals. Hollanda'da profesör Joris Lammers, son zamanlarda binlerce profesyonelden oluşan bir anket gerçekleştirdi.

He asked him to describe whether they were in positions of power in their workplaces. İş yerlerinde iktidar pozisyonlarında olup olmadığını anlatmasını istedi. He then asked... Mr.

JORIS LAMMERS (Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University Professor): Whether they ever committed adultery, whether they foresee that they ever would engage in a adulterous relationship. JORIS LAMMERS (Sosyal Psikoloji Anabilim Dalı, Tilburg Üniversitesi Profesörü): Zina yapıp yapmadıklarını, isterlerse olsunlar bir ilişki kurduklarını öngörüp düşünmediklerini. And, yeah, we found it affects both men and women. The more they have power, the more they are likely to engage in infidelity. Daha fazla güce sahip olduklarında, aldatma ile meşgul olma olasılıkları daha yüksektir. VEDANTAM: Lammers found that the most powerful people in his survey were 30 percent more likely to have affairs than the least powerful people. VEDANTAM: Lammers, anketindeki en güçlü insanların, en az güçlü insanlardan daha fazla iş yapma olasılığının yüzde 30 olduğunu buldu.

The most powerful people were also having way more affairs. En güçlü insanlar da daha fazla iş yapıyorlardı. And this is not just about the Dutch. Ve bu sadece Hollandalılarla ilgili değil. Studies done in other places have shown the same correlation between adultery and power. Diğer yerlerde yapılan çalışmalar, zina ve güç arasındaki aynı ilişkiyi göstermiştir.

And there is preliminary research that might explain why power increases infidelity. Ve gücün neden sadakatsizliği artırdığını açıklayabilecek bir ön araştırma var. When you stick people inside a brain scanner and give them a fleeting sense of power, the way they view risks and rewards changes. İnsanları bir beyin tarayıcısının içine soktuğunuzda ve onlara geçici bir güç hissi verdiğinizde, riskleri ve ödülleri değiştirdikleri şekli değişir. Mr.

LAMMERS: So you can even see this in brain activation. If people feel powerful, and you can see that brain structure associated with positive things - with rewards - is just much more activated than the part that is steered towards preventing the bad things from happening. Eğer insanlar güçlü hissederlerse ve olumlu şeylerle ilişkili beyin yapısının (ödüller ile), kötü şeylerin olmasını önlemek için yönlendirilen kısımdan çok daha aktif olduğunu görebilirsiniz. VEDANTAM: So when you get a sense of power, you start to focus on all the things that could go right. VEDANTAM: Yani bir güç hissi aldığınızda, doğru gidebilecek her şeye odaklanmaya başlıyorsunuz.

And you get blinders on for all the things that could go wrong. Ve yanlış gidebilecek her şey için köreliyorsun. But that’s not all. Ama hepsi bu değil. Psychologist Jon Maner, at Florida State University, recently sat heterosexual college students down with an opposite sex partner. Florida State Üniversitesi'ndeki Psikolog Jon Maner, yakın bir tarihte karşıt seks partneriyle heteroseksüel üniversite öğrencilerine oturdu.

Maner found that when students were given a brief feeling of power, they were more likely to start flirting with the stranger sitting next to them. Maner, öğrencilere kısa bir güç hissi verildiğinde, yanlarında oturan yabancıyla flört etmeye başlama ihtimalinin daha yüksek olduğunu buldu. Take away the power, the flirting disappears - and it wasn’t just the men. Gücü al, flört kaybolur - ve sadece erkekler değildi. Women given power behaved exactly the same. Mr.

JON MANER (Florida State University, Department of Psychology Professor): Power-holders tended to touch their subordinates more, they maintained more direct eye contact. JON MANER (Florida State Üniversitesi, Psikoloji Bölümü Öğretim Üyesi): Güç sahipleri astlarına daha fazla temas etme eğilimindeydiler, daha fazla doğrudan göz teması sağladılar. They behaved in an overall more flirtatious manner. Genel olarak daha çapkın bir şekilde davrandılar. VEDANTAM: Power also causes both men and women to see themselves as more attractive than they really are. VEDANTAM: Güç, hem erkeklerin hem de kadınların kendilerini gerçekte olduklarından daha çekici görmelerine neden olur.

And it makes perfectly innocuous comments from subordinates and strangers sound like come-ons. Ve astları ve yabancıların gelenekleri gibi mükemmel bir şekilde zararsız yorumlar yapar. Volunteers with the power believe their lab partners were acting in sexual ways even when they were not, Maner said. Gönüllüler, güce sahip olanların, laboratuvar ortaklarının, değilken bile, cinsel yollarla hareket ettiklerini düşündüklerini söyledi. In other words, when you say hello to someone, an ordinary person thinks you said hello. Başka bir deyişle, birisine merhaba derken, sıradan bir insan merhaba dediğinizi düşünüyor. A powerful person thinks you meant hel-lo, and it doesn’t take much power to trigger this. Güçlü bir insan, dümdüz demek istediğini düşünüyor ve bunu tetiklemek çok fazla güç gerektirmiyor. Mr.

MANER: I don’t think this is going to be limited to powerful politicians or CEOs at big companies by any means. MANER: Bunun büyük şirketlerdeki güçlü politikacılar veya CEO'lar ile hiçbir şekilde sınırlandırılmayacağını düşünüyorum. I think this can happen in every day social interactions. Bunun her gün sosyal etkileşimlerde olabileceğini düşünüyorum. In fact, in our own research, just giving people power over a small amount of money in a short laboratory interaction was sufficient to elicit this overestimation of sexual interest. Aslında, kendi araştırmamızda, insanlara kısa bir laboratuvar etkileşiminde küçük bir miktar parayla güç vermek, cinsel ilginin bu aşırı tahmin edilmesini sağlamak için yeterliydi. VEDANTAM: But none of these studies explain why there are so many more sex scandals among men. VEDANTAM: Fakat bu çalışmaların hiçbiri, erkekler arasında neden daha çok seks skandalı olduğunu açıklamıyor.

Our panel of pedestrians in Washington included Barley Bahla(ph), a local writer. Powerful men tend to be at the center of these scandals, she said, because men are at the center of power in our society. Dedi ki, güçlü insanlar bu skandalların merkezinde olma eğilimindedir, çünkü insanlar toplumumuzda iktidarın merkezinde yer alırlar.

Ms.

BARLEY BAHLA (Writer): Well, women in power have done some pretty inappropriate things. Think of Catherine the Great. VEDANTAM: Catherine the Great was an 18th century Russian empress, one of the most powerful women in the history of the world.

Over three decades, she took up with a slew of lovers. Otuz yılı aşkın süredir, bir çok sevgili ile uğraştı. When she grew bored she discarded them by dipping into the national coffers to hush them up. Когда ей стало скучно, она выбросила их, окунувшись в национальную казну, чтобы замолчать. Sıkılınca büyüdükçe onları susturmak için ulusal kasaya batırdı. Frankly, her sexual escapades make uploading dirty pictures to Twitter sound tame. Откровенно говоря, из-за ее сексуальных выходок загрузка грязных картинок в Твиттер звучит прилично. Açıkçası, cinsel maceraları, Twitter ses ustalarına kirli resimler yüklüyor. Shankar Vedantam, NPR News.