Wealth and Ethics

[thewayne]

Are rich people more likely to be morally corrupt than poorer people? Seven studies with widely varying parameters would suggest as much. The studies varied from watching the behavior of expensive cars vs cheap cars at an intersection to having participants imagine they were rich or poor and then give them a jar of candy to be given to a room of children and see how much candy the participant takes.

Interesting stuff. And yet another Downton Abbey reference. I would love to see these studies repeated in other countries to see if it tracks consistently across national borders.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/shame-on-the-rich.html?ref=hp

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/income-and-ethics/

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/27/218258/are-rich-people-less-moral

Comments

[silveradept]

That would be very interesting to see. I wonder if things would be more pronounced in countries where there aren't strong police reasons to not behave in overtly ... actually, scrub that. Even here in the U.S., there aren't real deterrents to rich people behaving badly and illegally.