Billionaire Brain: How Extreme Wealth Rewires Human Psychology

PsyberSpace S2E1: The Neuroscience of Wealth and Power

In the season two opener of PsyberSpace, host Leslie Poston explores how extreme wealth and power transform the human mind. The episode gets into neuroscientific research revealing that power and wealth can rewire neural pathways, decrease empathy, alter decision-making, and increase risk-taking behaviors. Examples from real-world events, including actions by billionaires like Jeff Bezos, illustrate the psychological changes that accompany immense wealth. The show also highlights how maintaining diverse social connections can mitigate the negative effects of power. With increasing global wealth concentration, understanding these changes is critical for society.

00:00 Welcome to Season Two of PsyberSpace
01:56 The Neuroscience of Power
05:14 The Dark Side of Extreme Wealth
08:19 The Isolation Bubble
10:28 Risk-Taking and Reality Distortion
15:29 Authoritarian Tendencies and Elite Panic
18:23 Positive Examples and Solutions
21:12 Conclusion: Understanding Wealth's Psychological Impact

Research:

Bader, M., Hilbig, B., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2022). Rethinking aversive personality: Decomposing the Dark Triad traits into their common core and unique flavors. Journal of Personality, 90(4), 543-557. 

Borgholthaus, C. J., White, J. V., & Harms, P. (2023). CEO dark personality: A critical review, bibliometric analysis, and research agenda. Personality and Individual Differences, 203, 111951. 

Du, H., Götz, F., King, R. B., & Rentfrow, P. (2022). The psychological imprint of inequality: Economic inequality shapes achievement and power values in human life. Journal of Personality, 90(6), 889-906. 

Foster, S., & O'Mealey, M. (2021). Socioeconomic status and mental illness stigma: The impact of mental illness controllability attributions and personal responsibility judgments. Journal of Mental Health, 30(4), 507-513. 

Greer, L., & Chu, C. (2020). Power struggles: When and why the benefits of power for individuals paradoxically harm groups. Current Opinion in Psychology, 33, 162-166. 

Grossman, G., Margalit, Y., & Mitts, T. (2022). How the ultrarich use media ownership as a political investment. Journal of Politics, 84(3), 1944-1960. 

Hägel, P. (2020). Billionaires in world politics. Oxford University Press. 

Hilbig, B., Thielmann, I., Klein, S. A., Moshagen, M., & Zettler, I. (2020). The dark core of personality and socially aversive psychopathology. Journal of Personality, 88(6), 1046-1061. 

Julian, M. F., & Bonavía, T. (2020). Psychological variables related to corruption: A systematic review. Anales de Psicología, 36(2), 330-339. 

Kaufman, S., Weiss, B. M., Miller, J. D., & Campbell, W. K. (2020). Clinical correlates of vulnerable and grandiose narcissism: A personality perspective. Journal of Personality Disorders, 34(Supplement), 107-130. 

Kernberg, O. (2020). Malignant narcissism and large group regression. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 89(4), 741-771. 

Lin, E., & Schmid, P. (2022). Does power increase attention to rewards? Examining the brain and behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 101, 104332. 

Maceri, S., & Coll, A. J. (2023). Las consecuencias indeseadas del dinero desde el punto de vista de la psicología y la economía de la felicidad. Cultura Económica, 41(105), 67-84. 

Martin, B. A. S., Chrysochou, P., Strong, C., Wang, D., & Yao, J. (2022). Dark personalities and Bitcoin: The influence of the Dark Tetrad on cryptocurrency attitude and buying intention. Personality and Individual Differences, 179, 111453. 

Mutschmann, M., Hasso, T., & Pelster, M. (2020). Dark triad managerial personality and financial reporting manipulation. Journal of Business Ethics, 169(2), 381-404. 

O'Reilly, C., & Chatman, J. A. (2020). Transformational leader or n