PEOPLE from wealthy, upper classes are more likely than poorer folks to break laws while driving, take candy from children and lie for financial gain.
The seven-part study by psychologists at the University of California Berkeley and the University of Toronto analyzed people’s behavior through a series of experiments.
For instance, drivers of expensive vehicles were observed to be more likely to break the rules at four-way intersections, and were more likely to cut off pedestrians trying to cross the street than drivers of cheaper cars.
In another test using a game of dice, given the opportunity to win a prize, people who self-reported high socio-economic status were more likely than the rest to lie and say that they had rolled higher numbers than they actually had.
People with higher status were also less likely to tell the truth in a hypothetical job negotiation in which they were the employer trying to hire someone for a job they knew was soon to be eliminated.
And when given a jar of candy that they were told was for children in a nearby lab– though they could take some if they wanted– the richer people took more candy than anyone else.
“The pursuit of self-interest is a more fundamental motive among society’s elite, and the increased want associated with greater wealth and status can promote wrongdoing,” said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A series of factors “may give rise to a set of culturally shared norms among upper class individuals that facilitates unethical behavior,” added the researchers.
For instance, richer people are more independent from others and are therefore less concerned with what others think of their actions than poorer people, the authors suggested.
Wealthy people also appear to be more goal-focused, look more positively on greed, and have greater feelings of self-entitlement, which “may shape… inattention to the consequences of one’s actions on others,” said the study.