Why do people in positions of power sometimes seem so out of touch with reality? How can success seem to fundamentally change a person’s character? These aren’t just questions of personality or morality. An emerging field of research is integrating sociological explanations with neuroscientific underpinnings to reveal that power is not merely a social construct; it is a force that can physically reshape the brain and create tangible psychological effects. It’s time to Understand Your Brain on Privilege.
The “neurology of power” shows that privilege isn’t just about the advantages you have, but about how those advantages can rewire your perception, empathy, and even your biological stress response. This article explores four of the most surprising and impactful findings from this research, revealing how inequality leaves a measurable mark on all of us.
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1. Privilege Isn’t Just a Mindset—It Physically Rewires the Brain
The core finding of the neurology of power is that sustained privilege can physically alter brain function through neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. These changes are often not conscious choices; they are the result of the brain adapting to the reinforced patterns of a privileged lifestyle.
This reframes our understanding of privilege. It ceases to be a simple set of external advantages and becomes an active force that changes how a person perceives the world. As the brain adapts to an environment of success and control, it develops specific cognitive blind spots. These aren’t just vague biases; they are predictable patterns:
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- Biased Self-Attribution: The powerful tend to attribute their success to personal skill and hard work, rather than the systemic advantages they received.
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- Internalizing Superiority: Repeated success and a lack of negative consequences can lead to an unconscious, internalized belief that one is inherently better than others.
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- Egocentric Thinking: Power increases focus on one’s own needs, fostering an insular worldview that makes it difficult to recognize or understand the experience of others.
The thing that people with power don’t know is what it’s like to have little or no power. Minute by minute, you are reminded of your place in the world… people who are so accustomed to having power that they don’t even know it’s there.
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2. Power Creates an “Empathy Deficit” (And Science Can Explain Why)
One of the most documented effects of power is diminished empathy. Research consistently shows that wealth and privilege can increase self-interest and make it significantly harder for individuals to empathize with the struggles of others. Neuroscience offers a biological explanation for this phenomenon.
Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital describes a core brain function called “body budgeting” (or allostasis). Similar to a financial budget, the brain constantly manages the body’s energy resources, making predictive calculations to meet metabolic needs before they arise. Empathy, it turns out, is a resource-intensive process; it requires the brain to spend significant metabolic energy.
Because it is biologically harder for the brain to predict the needs of unfamiliar people, empathizing with their struggles represents a poor return on metabolic investment. From the brain’s perspective, it is “less inclined to use up precious resources” trying to model the inner state of those outside its direct experience. Over time, this resource-dependent tendency can create a profound empathy deficit, insulating the privileged from the realities of those they affect.
Power wires the powerful for power; but it can also wire them against people without power. You can lose your empathy.
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3. “Meritocracy” Is a Myth Fueled by Investment, Not Just Talent
The modern ideal of meritocracy suggests that success is a simple formula of talent plus effort. However, as Daniel Markovits argued during a presentation at Oxford, this equation is missing a third, crucial component: investment.
The data reveals a system that overwhelmingly favors the rich, even when it functions precisely as designed. Markovits points out that at Oxford, 40% of students were privately educated in a country where the national average is only 7%. The disparity is even starker at his own institution: “at my university, Yale, there are more students from the top 1% of the income distribution than from the entire bottom half.”
Crucially, he argues this happens even when an admissions process like Oxford’s is “not corrupt” and lacks meaningful legacy preference. The system produces these outcomes because massive disparities in investment produce massive differences in achievement. In the U.S., the richest private schools spend over $75,000 per pupil, while public schools average about $12,000. Under this system, “meritocratic children are also rich children,” creating a structure that reinforces privilege and “excludes most of society from meaningful advantage.”
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4. Powerlessness Isn’t Just a Feeling—It’s a State of Perpetual Stress
On the other side of the coin, the neurological impact of lacking power is just as profound. For those in a state of powerlessness, the body and brain enter a state of “perpetual stress,” training the body to be constantly on the alert.
This chronic state compromises an individual’s productivity and happiness. It’s not just a feeling of worry; it’s a tangible, physical reality. As researcher Suzanne Alleyne describes, it’s about “how it’s difficult to get out of bed if you have mental health conditions, impossible to laugh or charm if you are worried about what you will eat, and how not being seen can grind away at your sense of self.”
This finding is critical because it validates the lived experience of millions. It proves that the burdens of inequality are not just psychological but physiological. Powerlessness creates an exhausting biological reality, depleting the very resources needed to overcome it.
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Conclusion: Rewiring Our Understanding
Power and privilege are not abstract social concepts. They are forces with real, measurable effects on our brains and bodies. From diminishing empathy in the powerful to creating a state of perpetual stress in the powerless, inequality creates vastly different neurobiological realities.
This science challenges us to look beyond individual behavior and see the systemic forces at play. If privilege can neurologically handicap our leaders by insulating them from the experiences of others, what must we do to consciously bridge that gap?
Check out the SSF scale “From Resistance to Leadership: Mapping Reactions to Representation”
#Neuroscience #Inclusion #Equity #Leadership #SocialJustice #Neurodiversity #PowerAndPrivilege #SixStagesFramework #Empathy #Psychology #MeritocracyMyth #Education
