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SALT LAKE CITY -- Apparently, bad behavior is a lot like a college senior - upper-class.
University of California, Berkeley doctoral student Paul Piff and co-authors conducted seven studies to find out not only which socioeconomic class behaves with the most disregard for ethics, but why that behavior might have come about. What they found was "upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals."
Those on the highest rung of the social ladder tended to break the law more while driving, were more likely to cheat, lie during a negotiation, and in one strangely literal experiment they were even more likely to take candy from children.
Subjects in the candy experiment were asked to carry a jar of sweets intended for children to another laboratory, but were told they could have some if they wanted. Those who rated themselves as in a higher class during earlier tests "took more candy than would otherwise go to children than did those in the lower-rank condition."
This study builds on earlier research by Piff, in which he and his co-authors found that those with more money were less likely to act generously while playing a laboratory game. Only this time around, he wanted to see whether they would go so far as to break rules rather than simply fail to give.
Study 2: Drivers of upper class vehicles more likely to cut off pedestrians at crosswalk.
Study 3: After reading stories where a character unrightfully took something, upper-class people were more likely to suggest they would do the same.
Study 4: Upper-class individuals more likely to take candy indented for children. Showed a relationship between higher class and unethical decision tendencies.
Study 5: Showed upper-class individuals were less likely to tell the truth during a negotiation over a job position that would soon be eliminated. Showed that more favorable attitudes toward greed are what likely predispose upper-class individuals to unethical decision making.
Study 6: Favorable attitudes toward greed predicted likelihood of cheating during a game. Upper-class individuals were more likely to have those attitudes, and were more likely to cheat.
Study 7: Lower-class individuals primed with positive aspects of greed were more likely to exhibit unethical behavior, comparable to upper-class individuals.
In another experiment, researchers found that in a dice game with a $50 prize, those who were ranked among modern society's nobility were least likely to act nobly - they cheated more often than plebian counterparts by falsely inflating their scores.
Interestingly, these results were still after being controlled for race, gender and religiosity.
Why would this be the case? Other studies and statistics have shown a strong relationship between poverty and violent crime, and on the other hand plenty members of the 1 percent are big donors to charity, like Bill and Melinda Gates as well as many others. Piff's answer is, in a word, is greed.
Or rather, the answer is a person's attitude toward greed. In several experiments, subjects had their attitude toward greed rated as more or less favorable. It just so happens that those with relatively favorable attitudes toward greed were much more likely to be from the upper class.
And it doesn't end there - subjects who were "primed" to have a more favorable attitude toward greed during the experiments were more likely to steal candy or cheat, regardless of their class background.
According to the study then, the real problem is thinking that greed is not such a bad thing, relative to someone else. So why are the kings of the economic hill so likely to think with more narrow self-interest?
"If you occupy a more insular world, you're less likely to be sensitive to the needs of others," Piff told the Los Angeles Times.
That is, those with more resources to take care of themselves are less likely to depend on their relationships with others to get by. The more you have, the more independently you can operate.
Not only that, but the negative consequences of your actions may simply be easier to deal with. "The availability of resources to deal with the downstream costs of unethical behavior may increase the likelihood of such acts among the upper class." In other words, if one of the world's lowliest suddenly found themself on a pile of money, they too would be in a position to adopt a greedy attitude and behave more unethically, with fewer consequences.
The study, called "Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior," will be published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
