Scientists argue that power is corrupting because it leads to moral hypocrisy. Although we almost always know what the right thing to do is, power makes it easier to justify the wrongdoing, as we rationalize away our moral mistake. The real question, of course, is what causes this blatant hypocrisy. One possibility is that power makes us less sensitive to the needs and feelings of others -- it silences our empathy -- and so we only think about our own motivations and needs. Once we become socially isolated, we stop simulating the feelings of other people. Our sense of sympathy is squashed by selfishness. The UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner found that people with power are like patients with severe brain damage. Our most powerful people are also the most isolated. They live in gated communities with private drivers. They skip the security lines at airports, before sitting at the front of the plane. We shouldn't be surprised that they're also assholes.
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/01/power.php
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