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 Post subject: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:50 pm 
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Does wealth corrupt, or are jerks more likely to become rich?

Studies find correlation between status; douchebag behaviour.

One of several studies:
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To these thorny social questions, Piff and colleagues apply the methodologies of science. In their first two experiments, they monitored traffic at a four-way intersection in San Francisco, noting the makes and models of automobiles — a reliable indicator of socioeconomic status, or SES — and whether their drivers cut off other vehicles or pedestrians. Rude behavior rose with status, and high-SES drivers were roughly twice as inconsiderate as low-SES drivers.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:22 pm 
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My personal opinion is that jerks are more likely to get rich. Most douchebag behavior is a symptom of selfishness IMO.
I think it's a mindset that cares more for tangible things like money and possessions than for interpersonal relationships. I also think this mindset applies to those born into extreme wealth or privilege unless they work very hard to overcome it.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:46 am 
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According to The Psychopath Test, approximately 1% of the population are psychopaths; however, 3-5% of CEOs are psychopaths. Business rewards psychopathic behaviours and psychopaths are more likely to rise to the top ranks in business.

I agree with chaosman; our society (which is flawed) rewards "douchebag" behaviour with wealth and power.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:05 am 
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There is also the effect, that the higher your status, the less likely are people to complain to you, because of your behaviour. And thus you get less feedback for being a jerk.

I assume it is so obvious that i suppose the authors of the study have thought about it themselfs, but i assume there is also a correlation between how much* you are ready to spend for the status symbol part of your car, and your driving style.

*as in relative to your wealth

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:09 am 
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True. People who buy fancy cars probably have bigger egos.

There were several other experiments, though, described in the article. One of them literally involved giving experimental subjects the opportunity to take candy from children. They consistently found that people of higher social status were more likely to act like jerks. In one of the experiments, people didn't even have to be of high status in real life. Simply telling them to imagine themselves to be wealthy in an experimental setting was enough to create a statistically significant "douchebag effect".

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:32 am 
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Kea wrote:
Simply telling them to imagine themselves to be wealthy in an experimental setting was enough to create a statistically significant "douchebag effect".

Wouldn't that particular experiment be more about perceptions about wealthy people than the actual behavior of wealthy people?

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:49 pm 
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Sure. But people who become wealthy will act as they perceive wealthy people act, while being wealthy. So that is, in their case, how wealthy people act.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:04 pm 
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In end effect, yes -- but it definitely shifts how one would approach the problem. "Bob is being a jerk because he's rich" and "Bob is being a jerk because that's how he thinks he's supposed to act" both wind up with Bob being a jerk, but how you go about encouraging Bob no to be a jerk is different in each case.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:33 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:10 pm 
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While what car someone drives is perhaps indicative of someone's wealth, it certainly isn't diagnostic. Lots of people take out loans to buy cars they can't afford because they want to look rich, and a significant number of people buy cars that are significantly cheaper than what they're capable of buying. I got a nice chunk of change from a stock sale last year. I could easily have used part of it to buy a much nicer car than what I currently drive, but instead I did the boring, responsible thing with it: I threw it at my mortgage.

Would I get a nicer car if money were absolutely no object? Yes. But whatever I got would still probably not qualify as a "luxury" car. (Now computers, on the other hand...) I don't give a rip about looking rich.

I agree with arcosh and Kea. The kind of car someone drives is likely to be a stronger indicator of obnoxious, discourteous behavior than their income.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:33 am 
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Instead of just trying to guess someone's income levels from their make of car, some of the studies did ask people about their real life socio-economic status. I can't access the original study, it's behind a pay-wall, but this article seems to have clearer (although brief) descriptions of what each experiment entailed.

Quote:
Study number four involved participants rating themselves on the SES scale to heighten their perception of status; they were then answered a number of questions relating to unethical behavior. At the end of the experiment, they were presented with a jar of individually wrapped candy and told that, although it was for children in a nearby lab, they could take some if they wanted. At this point you might be able to guess what the results were. High SES participants took more candy.

Attitudes toward greed were also examined. Study participants role-played a salary negotiation, acting as the employer. They were told before the negotiation that the job in question would would actually be eliminated in the near future. High SES participants were significantly less likely to be truthful about job stability, and significantly more likely to have favorable attitudes towards greed even when controlled for age, sex, ethnicity, religiosity, and political orientation.


However, the article doesn't say what factors go into self-rated socio-economic status aside from income.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:58 am 
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Also, any sort of self-rating falls into another problem: the tendency people have to lie about things they're self-conscious about, even when lying has negative consequences. People lie during job interviews, even though they know that if they're hired they won't be able to fool their employer for long. People lie to dates to make themselves look better, even though if the relationship goes anywhere their partner will find out the truth. People lie to their doctors, even though doing so puts their health in jeopardy. Someone who is not well off (or even someone who is) may exaggerate their self-rated socio-economic status because they want to look better and think they can get away with it. And when the study is trying to measure social behavior as it relates to other factors, the sway caused by that variable can be significant. Not saying the study's invalid, but I'm just wondering how much that might affect things.

I don't think being rich makes you a jerk so much as being rich gives you more opportunities to display how much of a jerk you really are. Being rich also makes you more likely to be able to tolerate the consequences of your jerkiness. (For example, if you can't afford to repair your car, you're less likely to drive like a maniac.) Once someone starts indulging in that kind of behavior, it becomes harder and harder to stop (especially if they don't suffer significant consequences), to the point where it for some people it becomes compulsive.

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:06 am 
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Hmmm. Two points:

- As AlternateTorg says, people lie on tests. I'd go as far as postulating that such antisocial people lie more than average, and that people tend to lie in the direction of being wealthier. This can therefore bias the results.

- The 'candy' test appears to be a direct test for greed. It's easy to see how higher greed correlates to higher wealth. (Does it contribute to bad behaviour? I'd say that's a 'yes' as well; therefore there are some types of mind that both seek wealth and behave badly. In general, any society will reward those who actively seek wealth with wealth, because they will do what that society requires to obtain wealth. Does this imply that people who behave badly in general are rewarded by society? No.)

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 Post subject: Re: Does wealth corrupt?
 Post Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:21 pm 
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CCC wrote:
Hmmm. Two points:

- As AlternateTorg says, people lie on tests. I'd go as far as postulating that such antisocial people lie more than average, and that people tend to lie in the direction of being wealthier. This can therefore bias the results.

In this particular test, this is actually not a bad thing - people will typically record what they identify as, either way. Thus, even if the correlation isn't directly between wealth and behaviour, it is between identified status and behaviour, which might be closer to the truth here.

Also, despite the general House principle ("Everybody lies"), there have been a few studies to see how this actually pans out in research, and it turns out that people lie much less when asked about their personal lives for research, usually because research is carried out in an anonymised fashion. There's not really much point to lying to save face if your face is not in danger in the first place.

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