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This week on Invisibilia, a close look at the expression of power in everyday interactions. We’ve all heard that power is dirty, that it corrupts. And yet, there’s no denying that we need it – to meet our needs, to make demands, to effect change in the world. So what happens when you’re so grossed out by power, you’d rather avoid the power game altogether? When a comic and a dominatrix go head to head, we find out the surprising forms power can take and what it takes to treat a power allergy.
Featured in this episode:
Learn more:
- “The P-Word: Power aversion and responsibility aversion as explanations for the avoidance of power,” by Kathryn E. Hull, Jennifer R. Overbeck, Luke D. Smillie, and Piers D. L. Howe
- You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate our Power of Persuasion and Why It Matters, by Vanessa Bohns
- “Who Wants to Get to the Top? Class and Lay Theories about Power,” by Peter Belmi and Kristin Laurin
- “The Burden of Power: Construing Power as Responsibility (Rather Than as Opportunity) Alters Threat-Challenge Responses,” by Annika School, Frank de Wit, Naomi Ellemers, Adam K. Fetterman, Kai Sassenberg, Daan Scheepers
- “Theories of Power: Perceived strategies for gaining and maintaining power,” by Leanne Ten Brinke and Dacher Keltner
Special thanks to the following musicians: