Psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different, and not in a good way: Their life experience makes them less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish. In fact, he says, the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest."

“We have now done 12 separate studies measuring empathy in every way imaginable, social behavior in every way, and some work on compassion and it’s the same story,” he said. “Lower class people just show more empathy, more prosocial behavior, more compassion, no matter how you look at it.”

In an academic version of a Depression-era Frank Capra movie, Keltner and co-authors of an article called “Social Class as Culture: The Convergence of Resources and Rank in the Social Realm,” published this week in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, argue that “upper-class rank perceptions trigger a focus away from the context toward the self….”

In other words, rich people are more likely to think about themselves. “They think that economic success and political outcomes, and personal outcomes, have to do with individual behavior, a good work ethic,” said Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it.

“I will quote from the Tea Party hero Ayn Rand: “‘It is the morality of altruism that men have to reject,’” he said.

Whether or not Keltner is right, there certainly is a “let them cake” vibe in the air. Last week The New York Times reported on booming sales of luxury goods, with stores keeping waiting lists for $9,000 coats and the former chairman of Saks saying, “If a designer shoe goes up from $800 to $860, who notices?”

According to Gallup, Americans earning more than $90,000 per year continued to increase their consumer spending in July while middle- and lower-income Americans remained stalled, even as the upper classes argue that they can’t pay any more taxes. Meanwhile, the gap between the wealthiest and the rest of us continues to grow wider, with over 80 percent of the nation’s financial wealth controlled by about 20 percent of the people.

Unlike the rich, lower class people have to depend on others for survival, Keltner argued. So they learn “prosocial behaviors.” They read people better, empathize more with others, and they give more to those in need.

That’s the moral of Capra movies like “You Can’t Take It With You,” in which a plutocrat comes to learn the value of community and family. But Keltner, author of the book “Born To Be Good: The Science of A Meaningful Life,” doesn’t rely on sentiment to make his case.............

................There is one interesting piece of evidence showing that many rich people may not be selfish as much as willfully clueless, and therefore unable to make the cognitive link between need and resources. Last year, research at Duke and Harvard universities showed that regardless of political affiliation or income, Americans tended to think wealth distribution ought to be more equal.

The problem? Rich people wrongly believed it already was.<<<< FULL ARTICLE>>>>>

mrjonno wrote:I would have thought you would need a high degree of empathy (ie putting yourself in another position) to succeed in business but thats absolutely nothing to do with being selfish or selfless. Understanding someone needs means you can either help a person or screw money out of them in other words empathy is morally neutral

MacIver wrote:

mrjonno wrote:I would have thought you would need a high degree of empathy (ie putting yourself in another position) to succeed in business but thats absolutely nothing to do with being selfish or selfless. Understanding someone needs means you can either help a person or screw money out of them in other words empathy is morally neutral

In a recent issue of Focus, the BBC's science mag had a study which found one in twenty five people in the business world were psychopaths, four times higher than the general population.

mrjonno wrote:I would have thought you would need a high degree of empathy (ie putting yourself in another position) to succeed in business but thats absolutely nothing to do with being selfish or selfless. Understanding someone needs means you can either help a person or screw money out of them in other words empathy is morally neutral

Tangerine Dream wrote:

Lance wrote:Approximately 85% of millionaires are self made. Those who inherit their money, or win it make up only 15%. It is not terribly surprising that the 85% are a bit down on those who have not succeeded, since it actually takes massive sacrifice to become a millionaire, and they naturally see the 'losers' as those who are not prepared to do what it takes.