ILLUSTRATION BY BRYANT FUKUTOMI

Power, we've been reminded, corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But power itself is not the corruptive force. Power is neutral until two or more human beings decide to convert it into influence. Abusive uses of power, therefore, are reflections of abusive relationships between people, of conscious choices.

Strong language or ivory tower stuff, you think? Let us explore just two of the ways we consciously collude to allow power to be "used wrongly or improperly" -- Webster's definition of abuse.

The first has to do with the tyranny of large numbers. Consider the following universally replicated laboratory research findings:

When confronted with two vertical lines -- A, which is 6 inches in length, and B, which is 4 inches in length -- thousands of diverse and representative individual subjects, viewing the two lines alone in a room, report being absolutely certain that A is the longer line.

Now imagine other comparable subjects seated at the corner of a round table occupied by four other subjects, just like themselves -- they think. Unbeknownst to the one in the hot seat, of course, each of these paid stooges has been instructed to select B as the longer line.

Video cameras focused on the hot seat capture a variety of quite funny gestures. Puzzled looks. Scratching heads. Removal and cleaning of glasses. Leaning forward for a clearer view. What is not the least bit funny is the fact that an average of 30 percent of those in the hot seat yield to the group pressure and report that B is the longer line.

I'll leave it to your imagination to abstract from these "ivory tower" conditions to the boardroom conditions, where the stakes and consequences are absolutely opposite.

As long as we are now at the boardroom table, let's add to the pressure to conform -- to "group think" -- the "small" factor of positional power because the seat at the head of the table is occupied by the boss. If you cringed even a bit at the "length of the line" research, be sure you're sitting when you look up an article entitled "Studies in Social Obedience" by Stanley Milgram.

Imagine the following scene:

A presumed academic expert on learning wearing a doctor's white coat in a room at a prestigious university -- Yale, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Columbia, to name four where the research was originally conducted. You are seated next to an electronic generator you absolutely believe can transfer 450 volts of electricity in 15 volt increments to a subject in another room you absolutely believe is hooked to your machine.

The results? Absolutely 100 percent of those not reading this article would be blindly influenced by a combination of expert, referent, and positional power to flick all 30 switches (30 times 15 equals 450 volts) to deliver the fake electricity to the subject, because none of us reading this article are among the 50 percent who actually did.

So, given that nothing gets accomplished without the exercise of power and influence, what can we do to guard against groupthink? Here are three "logical suggestions."

Because when we don't, we are colluding in ensuring that power becomes abusive.

‘Online social networks’
have a safer feeling

So it is a small world ... One of the biggest sources of unwanted e-mail in Japan is from "deaikei sites," Internet dating Web sites. "Find your perfect mate," screams one site. "Take our online marriage chance test now!" demands another. Negative reaction to this type of marketing has contributed to the growth of a new kind of Web site called "online social networks."

Online social networks encourage individuals to sign up and then invite their friends, automatically mapping out the relationships between users. The sites can still be used for dating and friendship, but with the added confidence of knowing that the person you are meeting is the friend of a friend.

One popular site is Gree, Japan's oldest entry in the social networking category. Launched in 2004, the site takes its name from Stanley Milgram's "Six Degrees of Separation." (Six deGREEs.)

Apparently image matters.

"Even if you end up doing the same thing as you would on a dating Web site, you can use the excuse that it is OK because it is Gree," said Yukiko Kanda, 31, a frequent Gree user.

In addition to uploading your photos and writing biographical information, Gree encourages you to keep an online journal or blog and write reviews of items you have used recently. The site contains more than 1,000 discussion threads dealing with Hawaii.

"Where is a good place to have a wedding in Hawaii?" asked one Gree member, generating a flood of answers.

Started by 28-year-old Yoshikazu Tanaka, Gree began as a hobby and has grown to almost 140,000 members. In October 2004, Tanaka quit his job at Internet darling Rakuten Inc. to devote all his time to Gree.

The site is only available in Japanese and is "invitation only" -- a current member must invite you before you can become a member.

Other sites are less exclusive. Friendster, one of the most popular sites in the United States has many members in Japan as well. The site's international members often provide information for travelers.

"When I get a message from someone who just wants to know about Japan, then I reply to them," said Miki, a 28-year-old Friendster-user in Tokyo, Japan.

Since joining in March 2004 she has received nearly 300 e-mails from people around the world.

"I don't use Friendster to seriously meet new people," she said. "I don't think people can be real friends with someone who they have never meet in real life, and I do think there are lots of risks to meeting someone over the Internet."

Using the popular U.S. online social networking sites can be a challenge for Japanese users. Directions are typically in English and support is not available in Japanese.

Taguchi Kazuhiro, a freelance journalist in Japan, created a Web site on how to use Orkut, Google's entry into the online social networking space. Orkut is not available in Japanese, so Taguchi's site walks a user through the process, explaining each section of the English site.

One of the main functions of all of the social networking sites is their ability to help friends stay in touch with each other.

"I met almost everyone on my friend list in Japan or California, not online," said 23-year-old Mayuko. "I just want to keep in touch with them on Friendster."

"I have a lot of foreign friends," agreed Miki, who used to live abroad. "I normally use the site to keep in touch with them and keep up my English."