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Are the wealthy less ethical?
A new study finds that those who feel wealthy are often the least ethical.
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Adriene Hill: A new study finds that the wealthiest among us are often the least ethical.
Paul Piff is a Ph.D candidate at the psychology department at Berkeley. He did the research and joins us now. Good morning.
Paul Piff:Good morning.
Hill: Tell me a little bit about this research specifically -- what did you find?
Piff: So we were interested in really looking at whether how much wealth and status you have in society affects whether or not you're willing to bend the rules, maybe even sometimes break the rules in your own favor. And we found that really across various studies, wealthier and more high-status individuals were more inclined to behave unethically.
Hill: What types of behaviors did you find that higher status people were willing to engage in that maybe other people weren't?
Piff: In a couple of studies that we ran in the real world, we looked at whether drivers of different cars were more or less inclined to cut off other vehicles at a four-way intersection, or to fail to yield for a pedestrian waiting to cross at a crosswalk. And we found that drivers with more expensive vehicles were more inclined -- three to four times more likely -- to break the law while driving.
Hill: That's fascinating. Why do you think that is? Do you have any ideas what's going on?
Piff: So I imagine that they're going to be a confluence of factors, but specifically what we highlight in this work is that it's the upper class individuals that are more likely to believe that the pursuit of self-interest and greed, if you will -- that is, the prioritizing your own material interests over the welfare of others -- is a good and moral thing. And it's really as a result of these specific values that seem to be orientated around greed that upper class individuals in our studies tend to be more unethical.
Hill: Now I read that you also found somehow that wealthy people were more likely to steal candy from children. Is that right?
Piff: We did. We ran a study; in this case, we brought participants into the lab and temporarily induced them to experience sort of a higher or lower sense of social class by having them compare themselves to people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder, or compare themselves to people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. About 15 minutes after that kind of, what we social-psychologists call a priming task, we had them enter the hallway where the experimenter told them to hold a jar of candy that was reserved for children participating in a study in a nearby lab. And we just kept track of how much participants took. Participants who we made feel higher in social class rank actually took two times as much candy from children.
Hill: That's amazing.
Piff: I was so impressed by the, it really was a very sizable effect.
Hill: Paul Piff, thanks so much.
Piff: Thank you for having me on, it's a pleasure.
Remember recently when NPR, maybe Marketplace, ran a piece on product placement in entertainment? One comment was that guys driving Porsches were expected to be $%^&*s! How about the disdain we all have had for "yuppies" for decades now? How about Harvard MBAs, the ultimate "know-it-alls" with no morals? The majority of corporate executives. Anybody who works for a hedge fund. Bankers. Oh yeah, televangelists who get rich from donations from those who can least afford it.
What this guy is saying is what we all know from real life experiences.
Interesting choice of tests.
What if we tested driving fast vs. driving obstructively, what wouldwe find. If we tested for charity towards children?
"Stealing candy from children" sounds deplorable. "Stealing candy from a full jar" sounds less so. This apparently tested for both without discriminating, and the test was clearly designed to allow use of a cliche when reporting results. Why not try a jar half-full with cash for needy children? Test whether tendency to take money out or put money in (unsolicited) tends to track higher or lower class sense and/or higher or lower cash availability (perceived or actual).
Or study what kind of people tend to consider actual impact of their behavior on others (vs. vague emotion) when deciding whether to do the right thing. Does it matter how full the jar is -- whether taking some candy is likely to keep any kids from receiving some candy? Or does it only matter that there are children?
Test not only for cutting off other drivers at stop signs, but for drivers who remain at rest even when they have the right of way. Speeding and cutting through traffic vs. driving slow in the fast lane and pacing slower cards when traffic is light (intentionally obstructing).
Speaking for myself, I always tend to wait or step aside for people who were waiting before me (even if not in a line), for people who arrive when I do, for people who may have greater or equal right of way. When someone accepts but takes their time, making me and many behind me wait, then I become very impatient. When I arrive at a stop sign where someone with right-of-way has been waiting for quite a while (as if to make sure I wait for them, no matter how long it took me to arrive), then I tend to cut them off quickly. I care much more for common courtesy and common sense than formal rules.
This annecdotal experience does not necessarily suggest passive-aggressive abuse is greater among those who may feel a lower sense of social class. This often appears so to me; but in many cases, there is no indication at all if class perception is in play.
In general, I have found tendency to break the formal rules and tendency to disregard others are distinct behaviors that may not be tightly coupled. In my experience, people tend to exhibit or restrain these behaviors irrespective or age, wealth, "class", or perception thereof. I have noticed more correlation based on ethnicity (perhaps the comparative ethnicity of two parties interacting). I have noticed some driving behaviors appear correlated with type of vehicle (but apparently not cost of vehicle).
I suspect if any factors are found to accurately predict such behavior, they will probably be recent personal experiences and ingrained attitudes, which may or may not be associated with social class perception or other easily collected attributes.
Frankly, I'd like to see a study come up with convincing evidence of behavior association beyond "sometimes people are nice, sometimes people are smart, and sometimes people are mean and stupid".
