Technology and Power
There is a dark side to human nature that is nurtured by the control of power. In an earlier book, The Powerholders, I I described several psychological principles that appear to govern the behavior of people who control and use social power. In particula
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David Kipnis
Technology and Power
Springer-Verlag New York Berlin Heidelberg London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong
David Kipnis Department of Psychology Temple University Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA
With 2 Illustrations Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kipnis, David. Technology and power f David Kipnis. p. cm. ISBN-13:978-0-387-97082-0 1. Technology-Social aspects. 2. Power (Social sciences) I. Title. Tl4.5.K57 1989 89-11539 303.48'3-dc20 Printed on acid-free paper.
© 1990 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc. in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone. Typeset by Caliber Design Planning, Inc.
9 8 7 6 5 432 1 ISBN -13 :978-0-387-97082-0
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-3294-0
e-ISBN-13:978-1-4612-3294-0
For Elliot and Andrew
Preface
There is a dark side to human nature that is nurtured by the control of power. In an earlier book, The Powerholders, I I described several psychological principles that appear to govern the behavior of people who control and use social power. In particular, I examined how the successful use of power transformed, for the worse, the values and behavior of the influencing agent. My interest in the relation between technology and power grew out of reading David Howarth's Tahiti: A Paradise Lost,2 a description of the almost causal ways in which Western technology was used by early explorers and traders to obliterate the Tahitian civilization. In reflecting on what happened in Tahiti, what struck me was the similarity in the behavior of these explorers and traders to the behavior of the husbands, wives, and businessmen, in positions of power, that I wrote about in my earlier book. Technology and Power is concerned with the issue of how the added power provided by technology changes the behavior of people who control it. I describe these changes among managers at work, psychologists, physicians, and colonists. What unifies these disparate areas is the implacable logic of power. The seeming ease with which power promotes the derogation of those controlled by power provides, I believe, a needed perspective for viewing the many social problems generated by technology. I would particularly like to thank my colleague, Stuart M. Schmidt. We have collaborated on several of the studies reported in this book. He has called to my attention literature concerned with the use of technology in indust
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