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4 reasons leaders seem worse than regular people | Brian Klaas
Posted
June 23, 2023
Views
211,843
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7,069
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June 23, 2023
211,843
7,069
366
3.51%
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6:03Now PlayingUniversity College London professor Brian Klaas exposes the ugly truth about world leaders.
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Political scientist Brian Klaas uses philosophical thought experiments like the "trolley problem" to explore the moral complexities faced by leaders when making decisions under immense uncertainty.
According to Klaas, Winston Churchill's World War II choices serve as real-life examples of such dilemmas. Klaas identifies four factors—dirty hands, learning, opportunity, and scrutiny—that may falsely appear as corruption in leaders. "Dirty hands" refers to leaders making harm-inflicting decisions when all options are bad. "Learning" means leaders becoming more efficient at causing harm over time. "Opportunity" signifies the increased chances of those in power to cause harm, while "scrutiny" refers to heightened public examination of leaders' actions.
Klaas asserts that misinterpretations of these factors can lead to incorrect problem diagnoses and solutions. While these factors should not absolve leaders from accountability, they do provide a nuanced understanding of leadership complexities.
Read the video transcript ►
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About Brian Klaas:
Associate Professor of Global Politics at University College London, Contributing Writer for The Atlantic, author of Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us, and Creator/Host of the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast.
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Read more of our stories on leadership:
Why gaining power turns you into an actual Cookie Monster
How Russia’s strange cultural mindset led to Vladimir Putin’s great miscalculation
The cruelest people in Russian history
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