How do people define social class?

When I went searching for videos about social class, I have to admit, I had a little trouble. A lot of the videos were either too depressing, or they were filled with stuffy economists talking about money. Then I thought, who would have a good video about social class? Oprah!

I can't embed the video I want into this post, so here's the link (don't try to watch it in school, it won't work):Understanding Social Class

In this video, woman from around the Chicago are were asked to define what they thought social class is. I think it was very interesting to see the different perspectives of these women, and the way they view different social classes.

The first woman is an African American woman in a business suit. She talks about her definition of class and says it is "when someone looks at another individual for how they dress, what car they drive". She then goes on to say that nobody even knows she's unemployed, because of the way she dresses. I have to be honest, I never would have guessed she was unemployed, and I did base that off of the fact that she was wearing a business suit. I think this shows how much we assume things about other people, based on things like clothes. I agree with the woman that it's bad that we assume things based on looks.

One thing that stuck out to me was that almost every woman said that social class seems to based upon how people dress and the outward appearance of someone. I think it's very interesting that the idea that you can think you know a person's class/what they're like based on how they look on the outside. 

My favorite part of this video is the statement by the last woman. She mentions how there are a lot of upper class people who have a lot of options on how to behave, but she doesn't think they're very classy. This reminds me of my last post, and how upper class people are more likely to cheat and act unethically. I think it's interesting that she says how she thinks class is inside of you and it is how you act, and that it can't be taken away by lack of money. I agree with this, to an extent. I've seen a lot of lower/middle class people who act much more polite, ethically, and yes, classier than some of the upper class people I've seen.

I really enjoyed this video because it showed different perspectives on people's views of class. I found it very interesting that most of the woman agreed that class seems to be based upon what we see a person wearing and driving, and what job they have. 

Are rich people more likely to lie?

This article by CBC news thinks so! This article says that a study shows that the wealthier, better educated, and more successful people are more likely to engage in unethical behavior, like lying and cheating, than their counterparts in lower classes. The study cited several experiments that consistently showed this.

Stéphane Côté, a psychologist and the co-author of the study, said "I think it's important for those people who have the resources to understand that this is their basic tendencies and potentially … reflect on their behaviour and whether it in fact takes into the needs of others." However, he also states that is important to look at the context in which these people are supposedly "cheating".

One of the biggest ways that the upper class "cheats" is in driving. An experiment classified 152 California drivers by the type of car they drove, and it was shown that  the most expensive cars were 50% more likely to cut off a pedistrian, than those in "average" cars would. 


However, multiple experiments showed other ways that people in the upper class lie and cheat. These experiments showed "moderate" class effects where participants:

• Rated their likliehood in enganging in different types of unethical behavior. 
• Decided how much candy to take from a jar where the rest was destined to be given to children. 
• Chose  whether to tell the truth when negotiating a salary.
• Were tested to see whether they would cheat to increase the chances of winning a prize. 

The people who did this experiment speculated on why upper class people may lie and cheat. One reason is that they may be more easily forgiven and they might have the resources to deal with the consequences. However, the experimenters found that, regardless of class, people's behavior is influenced by two things: their perception of class and their attitude toward greed.

In the experiment involving candy, those who perceived themselves as upper class took more candy than those who perceived themselves to be lower class. They found that, in the the experiment rating their liklihood to engage in unethical behavior at work, regardless of class, they all expressed a willingness to cheat if they were asked beforehand to think of the beneficial effects of greed. Côté also said that a more positive outlook on greed may lead to the upper class engaging in more unethical behavior.  

I found this article to be very interesting, and to be honest, I wasn't really surprised that the upper class is more likely to involve themselves in unethical behavior.