What Machiavelli Got Wrong About Gaining Power and Influence

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), engraving by F Zuliani from a drawing by Antonio Viviani, from Notizie su la commedia italiana avanti Carlo Goldoni, Part 2, 1828, by Luigi Carrer.

According to Renaissance political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, power requires force, deception, manipulation and coercion. But Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and faculty director of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, argues that what actually makes us gain power is the opposite – honesty, generosity, empathy and social intelligence. In The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence, he looks at how power is gained, corrupted and lost.