I’ve come to the conclusion that titles like this, when reporting on a single study, are outright misleading when phrased in this way. A much, much more honest and truthful phrasing would be along the lines of “Single study claims to prove <thing>.” It’s not that I don’t think this study is interesting or relevant, it’s that a single study is just that - a single study. But the title uses a format that implies a universal truth has been discovered, like gravity waves in physics or a new species in biology, when that is just flatly not true.
This study is one in a trend of studies that have been showing that the rich are lacking in attributes that are valued by the majority of people while possessing a surplus of those considered to be negative traits by the majority. I.e., rich people are unkind, less generous, less empathetic, and now, in this study, they* are shown to express less gratitude. And, the wealthy are more self-centered, behave unethically, are narcissistic, and feel entitled.
What a ridiculous article. People playing monopoly are greedy when they get rich on monopoly money? Mercedes drivers are less likely to stop at cross walks (never mind they are old and have no idea what they are doing)? Oh rich people don't agree with my political views, it must be because they are heartless (cough not because they have statistically higher IQs, no of course not).
How about we take some real examples. How much more likely is a poor person to murder someone? Beat their wife? ... you know the answer already, which of course was the point of these whole "rich people are antisocial" posts. It is attempt to try and subvert some inconvenient truths - truths that need to be subverted in order to push a certain ideology.
Anyway, from a personal note, I grew up in a very working class area, and I have been to many third world countries. Let me tell you, poverty, real poverty that is, really turns people into absolute pieces of shit. There is no judgment here, it would probably happen to me or anyone else reading this if they were in that situation, but poverty really ruins peoples morality and decency. That is a fact.
> rich people don't agree with my political views, it must be because they are heartless (cough not because they have statistically higher IQs, no of course not).
Studies show that wealth and IQ aren't strongly correlated. It's questionable if higher IQ informs political beliefs.
> How much more likely is a poor person to murder someone? Beat their wife?
The fact that rich people have other ways of imposing power on someone doesn't change anything. A rich person can sue someone into oblivion as opposed to murdering them. A rich person has a prenup, so they don't have to kill their wife. A rich person doesn't have to beat their wife for not making dinner because dinner not being made because it just gets ordered in.
> poverty really ruins peoples morality and decency. That is a fact.
It's an assertion, not a fact. I haven't seen any studies that support that.
Even that would be wrong to generalize. All the study really says is that higher-up in academics put less people into the acknowledgements part of the paper, than lower-ups. Which also totally makes sense considering the difference in experience.
I only skimmed the article, did the authors address the difference between genuine gratittude and brown-nosing? After an exercise I did where I contacted a fair number of powerful people this finding sounds counterintuitive, the truly powerful (if they responded at all) were invariably gracious and generous, while the only negative response came from a university professor who had more power than me but much less than the majority on the list.
Gratitude is a useful feeling, if you're a part of society and depend on the goodwill of people. It makes spontaneous collaboration possible through principle of reciprocity [0].
I imagine that, when one reaches a certain level of power, the feeling of reciprocity becomes more of a burden, because it gives power to psychological manipulators (e.g. by giving you something that appears valuable, but is in fact worthless, in an attempt to get something valuable in return).
A stupid example: when an accident happen, for instance on a ship and someone die, some tend to express much their emotions, but officers need to restrain them to remain in control, accidents unfortunately happen and to avoid making them works or one that push to another we need to remain rational.
I think the same mechanism happen in general "for powerful people" to a certain extent, to a certain other extent: if you never feel certain emotions, understanding them it's not equally immediate. I never feel the risk of loosing home for instance, I comprehend the drama of one who live with that risk but I can't feel such situation in the same way of one who have live that. That's to another extent. Finally some who know and see others who don't acting for instance in absurd ways easily tend to shake the head and say "well... They can't do more, that's their life, I can't help".
All those consideration can be read in positive and negative ways in moral terms, but that's is.
Another classic observational examples probably all "middle class" have observed: poor people tend to spend more in useless stuff. A simple examples just go in a poor area and you'll easy see more expensive dress, shoes etc than a rich one in mean, in daily life. It's easy to say for some "hey, if were poor I certainly not buy 600€ gym shoes or 100€ jeans, they are poor because they do not know how to save money!" and similarly some others in the same cohort can say "hum, well... That's seem true to a certain extent, but probably they choose to spend because they consider themself hopeless and they want some reward to see a better life they can't really afford".
For ANY cohort of people regardless of the census few that have time and are smart, have a certain culture, probably comprehend more, others who live a "quicker" life and can't appreciate much the details simply apply a brutal razor. Those who have lived personally strong emotions feel more for similar situations etc.
It does not take a real study to state that, mere common sense observation suffice, a rigorous study can just confirm that's true or eventually spot things common sense have failed to appreciate so far...
18 comments
[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 51.6 ms ] threadThis study is one in a trend of studies that have been showing that the rich are lacking in attributes that are valued by the majority of people while possessing a surplus of those considered to be negative traits by the majority. I.e., rich people are unkind, less generous, less empathetic, and now, in this study, they* are shown to express less gratitude. And, the wealthy are more self-centered, behave unethically, are narcissistic, and feel entitled.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/does-wealt...
* In capitalist societies, wealth brings power, so I am treating 'rich' and 'powerful' as equivalent.
How about we take some real examples. How much more likely is a poor person to murder someone? Beat their wife? ... you know the answer already, which of course was the point of these whole "rich people are antisocial" posts. It is attempt to try and subvert some inconvenient truths - truths that need to be subverted in order to push a certain ideology.
Anyway, from a personal note, I grew up in a very working class area, and I have been to many third world countries. Let me tell you, poverty, real poverty that is, really turns people into absolute pieces of shit. There is no judgment here, it would probably happen to me or anyone else reading this if they were in that situation, but poverty really ruins peoples morality and decency. That is a fact.
Studies show that wealth and IQ aren't strongly correlated. It's questionable if higher IQ informs political beliefs.
> How much more likely is a poor person to murder someone? Beat their wife?
The fact that rich people have other ways of imposing power on someone doesn't change anything. A rich person can sue someone into oblivion as opposed to murdering them. A rich person has a prenup, so they don't have to kill their wife. A rich person doesn't have to beat their wife for not making dinner because dinner not being made because it just gets ordered in.
> poverty really ruins peoples morality and decency. That is a fact.
It's an assertion, not a fact. I haven't seen any studies that support that.
Do they? (honest question)
> How much more likely is a poor person to murder someone? Beat their wife?
I don't know. How much?
Psychology on the other hand has a lot to do with it.
Imo
I imagine that, when one reaches a certain level of power, the feeling of reciprocity becomes more of a burden, because it gives power to psychological manipulators (e.g. by giving you something that appears valuable, but is in fact worthless, in an attempt to get something valuable in return).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_(social_and_politi...
I think the same mechanism happen in general "for powerful people" to a certain extent, to a certain other extent: if you never feel certain emotions, understanding them it's not equally immediate. I never feel the risk of loosing home for instance, I comprehend the drama of one who live with that risk but I can't feel such situation in the same way of one who have live that. That's to another extent. Finally some who know and see others who don't acting for instance in absurd ways easily tend to shake the head and say "well... They can't do more, that's their life, I can't help".
All those consideration can be read in positive and negative ways in moral terms, but that's is.
Another classic observational examples probably all "middle class" have observed: poor people tend to spend more in useless stuff. A simple examples just go in a poor area and you'll easy see more expensive dress, shoes etc than a rich one in mean, in daily life. It's easy to say for some "hey, if were poor I certainly not buy 600€ gym shoes or 100€ jeans, they are poor because they do not know how to save money!" and similarly some others in the same cohort can say "hum, well... That's seem true to a certain extent, but probably they choose to spend because they consider themself hopeless and they want some reward to see a better life they can't really afford".
For ANY cohort of people regardless of the census few that have time and are smart, have a certain culture, probably comprehend more, others who live a "quicker" life and can't appreciate much the details simply apply a brutal razor. Those who have lived personally strong emotions feel more for similar situations etc.
It does not take a real study to state that, mere common sense observation suffice, a rigorous study can just confirm that's true or eventually spot things common sense have failed to appreciate so far...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVp7i6Qf9T8
My friend who works at a nurse also had a pizza party too :/