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Upper classes more likely to cheat, cut corners
Tuesday February 28, 2012 05:29:20 PM,
IANS
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Washington: Upper
classes tend to behave unethically, being more likely to believe
-- as did Gordon Gekko in the movie "Wall Street" -- that "greed
is good," says a new research.
In seven separate studies, University of California - Berkeley
researchers consistently found that upper-class participants were
more likely to lie and cheat when gambling or negotiating; cut
people off when driving, and endorse unethical behaviour in the
workplace.
"The increased unethical tendencies of upper-class individuals are
driven, in part, by their more favourable attitudes toward greed,"
said Paul Piff, doctoral student in psychology at UC-Berkley who
led the study, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences reports.
Piff's study is the latest in a series of UC-Berkeley scholarly
investigations into the relationship between socio-economic class
and pro-social and anti-social emotions and behaviours, revealing
new information about class differences during a time of rising
economic tension, according to a California statement.
"As these issues come to the fore, our research - and that by
others - helps shed light on the role of inequality in shaping
patterns of ethical conduct and selfish behaviour, and points to
certain ways in which these patterns might also be changed," Piff
said.
The researchers surveyed the ethical tendencies of more than 1,000
individuals of lower, middle and upper-class backgrounds.
Volunteers also took part in tasks designed to measure their
actual unethical behaviour.
In two field studies on driving behaviour, upper-class motorists
were found to be four times more likely than the other drivers to
cut off other vehicles at a busy four-way intersection and three
times more likely to cut off a pedestrian waiting to enter a
crosswalk.
Another study found that upper-class participants presented with
scenarios of unscrupulous behaviour were more likely than the
individuals in the other socio-economic classes to report
replicating this type of behaviour themselves.
Participants in the fourth study were assigned tasks in a lab
where a jar of candy, reserved for visiting children, was on hand,
and were invited to take a candy or two. Upper-class participants
helped themselves to twice as much candy as did their counterparts
in other classes.
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