George Washington famously didn’t want to become the president of the United States, but he accepted the job and performed it well. That’s how people should feel about important leadership positions, according to how political scientist Brian Klaas thinks about the role of power in society.

Klaas says that power should be a burden on people because leaders have to make decisions that will ultimately have negative consequences for many people. One problem: some humans don’t care about those consequences. And, according to Klaas, our institutions don’t do a very good job of screening these people out of important leadership spots.

Klaas suggests implementing psychological screening for top jobs, asking questions to determine why someone seeks power, and identifying whether they are in it for themselves or for the greater good. These measures can help to ensure that the right people are in positions of power, whether that means leading a company, governing a nation, or handling nuclear weapons.

0:00 Power should be a burden / Power should keep you up at night

1:18: The dark triad personality traits

1:43 Machiavellianism

2:06 Narcissism

2:40 Psychopathy

4:04 Psychological screening for powerful jobs

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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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