If You Were Rich, You'd Be a Jerk Too

Disdain for rich people has reached an all-time high. Thanks to the Panama Papers, we know the one percent shovel their billions offshore to avoid taxes and Bernie Sanders excoriates Wall Street for its corruption on a daily basis. Since the wealth gap has become so large -- the richest 62 billionaires own as much wealth as half the world's population -- we treat the upper class like a foreign species that lives in gold-encrusted glass cases. We gawk at their six-door garages and study their behaviour with disgust. It's tempting for everyone else to feel morally superior to the oligarchs sucking us dry. But the truth is, the negative psychological traits that come with having money exist to a degree in the middle class too. There is no doubt that being rich changes how someone acts. For example, psychologists have found the class of people who travel on private jets have less empathy than those who take the bus. Multiple studies show the wealthy are more oblivious to people's emotions, likely because money makes them self-sufficient. But having goals and ambitions can make anyone less tolerant of other humans. In their daily lives, most people who earn a steady paycheque and have busy schedules think mostly of themselves. They avoid eye contact with homeless people, curse the barista in long coffee lines and get annoyed by how much space baby carriages take up on public transit. And although they may not live in gated mansions, most middle-class people live lives segregat...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news