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Why
are pencil-pusher bureaucrats - like, for example, DMV workers - are often
so mean? Researchers led by Nathanael J. Fast at Stanford Graduate School
of Business have the answer:
A new study shows why interactions with DMV employees and other clerical workers can be so fraught, and why it can feel like they are picking on people who just want to register a car. The research, titled The Destructive Nature of Power Without Status, concludes that people in positions with power but low social status often use their authority to demean others.The lesson is not just that power corrupts, but that putting people in demeaning roles leads them to demean others. In other words, it's a real life reminder of the trope that "misery loves company."
The study used 213 undergraduate students in role play scenarios, simulating different combinations of power and status. The researchers told some students they were high-status "idea producers" and others they were low-level workers, and split them further into low- and high-power groups. The students were asked to assign their classmates tasks from a list including everything from "clap your hands 50 times" to "say 'I am filthy' five times." The students given high power but low status were significantly more likely to assign the most demeaning tasks than members of the other three groups. That "demonstrates that power liberates one to act on the negative emotions that result when one is being disrespected by others," says Stanford's Nir Halevy, one of the study's three authors.
Link | The study at Stanford GSB
Are you sick of your long commute to work and wish you could take a nap or read the web while on the road? Soon you may be able to obtain a license for a car that can drive itself. While such a vehicle may be a few years off, the state of Nevada is getting legislation in place that will allow for the implementation of hands free driving.
As we mentioned, among the bill’s requirements is for Nevada’s DMV to set guidelines by which a person obtains an autonomous vehicle driver’s licenses. The seemingly contradictory license is made even more so by the bill’s language: “The driver’s license endorsement…must…recognize the fact that a person is not required to actively drive an autonomous vehicle.” But of course guidelines must be set when operating a vehicle that navigates city streets, stops for pedestrians, etc. I’m guessing these ‘drivers’ won’t actually be allowed to nap on the way to work (at least not yet, but that is the whole point, isn’t it?), and they’re definitely going to have to know where the kill switch is in case of a malfunction.
Fifteen-year-old Jesse Jakan passed the written exam and taken a driving course, so he was excited to get his driving permit … except for one teeny tiny glitch: he caused a car accident when he was 6, and the DMV never forgets.
Jesse said the DMV asked him if he had ever driven before. He said "No." He said a DMV supervisor then told him he had a driving record and needed to have his license/permit reinstated.
"At the time, I was furious," said Chris Jakan, Jesse’s dad. "I thought it was the most absurd thing I had ever heard."
When Jesse was 6 years old he was playing around in his mom’s car and popped it out of gear. The car rolled down the driveway and crashed into another car.
"This is ridiculous. A 6-year-old should not be held accountable for his actions at that age," said Chris Jakan. "I am just wondering why a 6-year-old would have been ticketed for driving a car when he wasn’t driving. He popped it out of gear by accident."
Link – Thanks Tiffany!
