Buddhas Hand Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Are rich people mean? PUBLISHED: 05 Jul 2012 07:40:09 | UPDATED: 06 Jul 2012 05:27:33PRINT EDITION: 05 Jul 2012 Share Links:email print-font+font Research appears to indicate people can readily take on some of the more negative attributes associated with the wealthy during role playing games. Ben Woodhead Psychologists are turning their minds to how wealth affects people’s behaviour and the findings are startling. But the research, which comes against the backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street movement, is yet to reach a firm conclusion on one long-standing question about the rich: Does money make you mean, or are mean people better at making money? New York Magazine explores the territory this month in a lengthy article picking the brains of researchers and psychiatrists, who if nothing else agree that there are certain behaviours and traits that appear to emerge in the wealthy, regardless of if they’re innate. Among them: a propensity to act more aggressively and a tendency to drive with greater disregard for pedestrians and fellow motorists than the less well-off. “[Wealthy people] are sexual and aggressive,” psychiatrist T. Byram Karasu tells New York Magazine. “They are also competitive with anyone and have no fear of confrontations; in fact, they thrive on them.” University of California, Berkley researcher and psychologist Paul Piff has attempted to validate this stereotype through a series of tests involving rigged games of Monopoly, in which one player is able to accumulate wealth at a much faster rate. “Putting someone in a role where they’re more privileged and have more power in a game makes them behave like people who actually do have more power, more money, and more status,” Piff tells NY mag. “While having money doesn’t necessarily make anybody anything, the rich are way more likely to prioritise their own self-interests above the interests of other people.” Forbes picks up on the theme this week in an interview with Dr Reef Karim of Beverly Hills’ The Control Center, who suggests that personality traits that drive success in business can cause people to act impersonally to the people around them. “A surprising number of very wealthy people don’t have the kind of driving motivation you’d think they would have, and which could lead to incredible charity work and empathy towards others,” Karim tells Forbes. “It’s sort of a psychological paralysis due to money. Money can cripple you. In the end, it’s all about being human. It sounds cliché but it’s true: Happiness is not about money. The more we can bond with each other and connect with other people’s plights, the happier we are.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truculence Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 The more anti-social and psychopathic a person, the more likely it is that they will hoard wealth. The more wealth they hoard, the more defensive and disconnected they become. It's the greatest problem with modern capitalism, and will someday result in yet another violent revolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kass9 Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 I'm rich and nice as hell. Are rich people mean? No. I think it's the ones that wish they were rich making the rich look mean/bad.. Since they don't have what they want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzle Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 I've met plenty of rich people that are nice people and generous too. If you're looking to get a free lunch out of them, it is very rare that you can do that. Everyone hates people-users. If you're looking to get respect, you can't get respect from ANYONE if you don't respect yourself. KNOW your role in society and you might get respect from a rich person. Don't pretend to be someone you're not. You are more likely to get respect from a rich person by working hard from the ground up than if you were to get money through parental inheritance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 To be able to work in many high end jobs, people do require certain psychopathic tendencies. Psychopaths feel little remorse, empathy, guilt etc. and are extremely egocentric. Many Lawyers, CEO's, and Surgeons reportedly display these traits more often than regular people, which makes sense. A lawyer with a heavy conscious, a surgeon who feels immense guilt and remorse for every lost patient (to the point where it would shake their confidence), and a CEO who feels remorseful when hoarding assets would not do very well in their respective fields. Not to mention egocentrism wills the person to be able to get into these positions in the first place. Somebody who does not think much of themselves as a person would never strive to become a surgeon/lawyer/CEO because they wouldn't feel worthy to hold such powerful positions in the world. Of course, people with these traits naturally come off as meaner people in society. So I don't think that money really makes people any meaner, its just that meaner people have the means to be able to do the work that pays up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lockhart Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Rich people are mean cause they can be, fat girls are nice or "funny" cause they have to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoneypuckOverlord Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Not all rich people are mean. Look at the Vancouver Canucks players. They are rich as hell but not mean at all. I know the owner of NCIX, and he's the hunblest guy in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Rich people are mean cause they can be, fat girls are nice or "funny" cause they have to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lockhart Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 What does a rich fat girl do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avelanch Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 What does a rich fat girl do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Bang Boogie Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Not all rich people are mean. Look at the Vancouver Canucks players. They are rich as hell but not mean at all. I know the owner of NCIX, and he's the hunblest guy in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whysoserious Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etsen3 Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Just like with any group, there are mean rich peopl, nice rich people, and in-between rich people. You always see the stereotype of the snobby, douchebag banker type who's only in it for the money. But there are also a lot of people that were just doing something they loved (like playing hockey, or making music, or coming up with a cool product) and happened to become successful at it. A great example is the Sedins. They're rich as hell, but they don't seem greedy to me. I think it's because their biggest motivation for making the NHL probably wasn't money, it was love of hockey. So maybe it's not how much money you make that makes you mean, it's how you make the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoaltenderInterference Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Not all rich people are mean. Look at the Vancouver Canucks players. They are rich as hell but not mean at all. I know the owner of NCIX, and he's the hunblest guy in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLumme Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 I don't believe a word of this from my own personal experience. I work with a lot of executives and CEOs in my work, and I find that the higher up in an organization a person is, the nicer they are. The really mean spirited people are the middle managers that want to be in charge but aren't good enough at their job to get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 I don't believe a word of this from my own personal experience. I work with a lot of executives and CEOs in my work, and I find that the higher up in an organization a person is, the nicer they are. The really mean spirited people are the middle managers that want to be in charge but aren't good enough at their job to get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimberWolf Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Mean people are mean, nice people are nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake Doctor Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 They have an ego, that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted July 6, 2012 Author Share Posted July 6, 2012 In the end, it’s all about being human. It sounds cliché but it’s true: Happiness is not about money. The more we can bond with each other and connect with other people’s plights, the happier we are.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dittohead Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 One thing is for sure, people who are'nt rich are jealous bitches. What is rich? someone who makes 100k a year? or someone who makes a million or 10 or 100 million a year? All these stories about rich people are designed to make you think that they are evil and you are being cheated out of something. get a life and make something of it maybe you will be rich too. Plenty of poor people are complete jerk offs and certainly not nice people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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