Her research, which involved randomly assigning people to positions of power, suggests that acquiring power — whether through money, career success, athletic prowess or social status — can unleash changes in the brain that distort thinking and enhance “sensitivity to drives,” including sex.

Power is a “disinhibitor” that releases people from the sort of “normative pressures” that make the rest of us conform to social standards, Gruenfeld said.

“We all have temptations. But most of us self-regulate. We might say ‘That looks good, but I’m not going to reach over and take it.’ . . . But when people find themselves in a position of power, they get very singularly focused on their own goals and the acts that would satisfy them.”