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.
I definitely agree with this article I find that people that have massive amounts of money are very pompous and believe that they are better than everyone else. They have a tendency to look down on other and often show little respect for hard work. For example, I work at a restaurant as a waitress so it's harder to tell who the wealthier people are and the average folk are just by looking. However, all the delivery boys comment on how well people with average lifestyles tip them. On the other hand, they make deliveries in much wealthier places and they tip nothing or next to nothing. I don't understand why they perceive themselves as more entitled. Just like the candy the wealthier take what they think they deserve which often is perceived as too much. It is surely not all wealthy people but there are some. But are we giving them this entitlement or are they thrusting it upon themselves? Are we showing too much interest or respect for celebrities who are rude and unappreciative because they have so much money? Would they believe that they are so important without our approval?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point! I think that it's both. I think they give it to themselves, to some respect. But I think a lot of it has to with how we view those people. I think the way we let people, like celebrities, get away with certain things causes them to believe it's okay, and if it's not, that if they do it again nobody will care. I do think that those people believe that they are important on their own, but we don't really do much to bring them back down to earth.
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