Power is something that most people want, and some people crave. The power to boss around someone who usually bosses you around sounds appealing and fun. It was this thought that prompted me to do a little experiment.

I have a job, sort of, as a babysitter. I babysit these three brothers, Raymond, 11, Jacob, 9, and Wyatt, 7. Normally, I am in charge of everything, video game time, outside time, food, etc.., But I decided to let one of the boys have a chance with the power, and responsibility. Raymond is the oldest out of the three, but he is also the biggest bully and he has a problem with authority, or at least just my authority. I thought it would be interesting to see how he acted when one of his younger brothers was put in charge of him. Initially, I wanted Wyatt to be In charge, because he is the youngest and gets picked on the most, but when I asked him if he would like to be in charge, he looked at me wide-eyed and ran away screaming. Well then, Jacob it would have to be.

I asked Jacob “Would you like to be in charge?” and he smiled and nodded excitedly. Alright. I told him he could be in charge for one hour, starting at 2:30 pm. I wrote out a simple list of rules for Jacob to follow when he was in charge, rule one: Don’t burn the house down, rule two: Don’t physically harm anyone, rule three: You are responsible for everyone. Jacob still seemed pretty keen on being in charge, so at 2:30, he officially became in charge.

The boys are each only allowed one hour of video games a day, and had already used up their time for that day. Raymond told Jacob that they should be able to play video games for however long they wanted, and Jacob listened to him; so his first action in charge was that they could play video games for as long at they wanted. Raymond of course had no problem with that  and went on his tablet. Wyatt and Jacob both went on the xbox to play minecraft, and I just simply observed. For the first 15 minutes, things went smoothly and everyone seemed content. At 2:45, trouble started. Wyatt and Jacob had gotten into an argument over something in minecraft. Jacob commanded Wyatt to do something, but Wyatt wouldn’t do it. Jacob got frustrated and kept repeating the phrase “I’m in charge, you have to listen to me!”. Wyatt combated that with “No you are not in charge!”. Jacob came running to me, asking me to get Wyatt to listen to him, but I just shrugged and said “You are in charge, not me, I can’t do anything”. He was irritated and losing control. After 15 more minutes he raged quit the game and stormed off. I knew that enough was enough, so I asked him if he still want to be in charge. He quickly said no, and so 30 minutes after he was put in charge, he gave the power back to me.

I was honestly surprised about how things went. I knew there was going to be some trouble with authority, but I never expected it to come from Wyatt. I totally expected Raymond to be the one who didn’t listen to Jacob, but he listened just fine. I did notice though that Raymond manipulated Jacob into doing things, such as letting them play video games. It made the whole not-having-a-problem-with-jacob-being-in-charge thing make sense. He didn’t have a problem, because he was really in charge, through manipulation. Wyatt didn’t like the authority and stood up to it. Raymond manipulated and controlled the authority. Jacob was the authority, and cracked under the pressure. I found this experiment and the psychology behind it fascinating, but I do not recommend trying this at home, unless you enjoy lots of fighting.