Pointy Heads From Berkeley Conclude That F. Scott Fitzgerald Was Right.

WayWayDifferentThan
YouAndMeVille



From Dangerous Minds via Open Culture:

...The research shows that people of higher socioeconomic status are more likely to break traffic laws, lie in negotiations, take valued goods from others, and cheat to increase chances of winning a prize. The resulting paper, “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior,” was published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

It's actually just a tad worse than that based on the actual abstract from the actual peer-reviewed paper written by the actual pointy heads:

Seven studies using experimental and naturalistic methods reveal that upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals. In studies 1 and 2, upper-class individuals were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to lower-class individuals. In follow-up laboratory studies, upper-class individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies (study 3), take valued goods from others (study 4), lie in a negotiation (study 5), cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize (study 6), and endorse unethical behavior at work (study 7) than were lower-class individuals. Mediator and moderator data demonstrated that upper-class individuals’ unethical tendencies are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.

And here I thought that greed was a good thing.

At least if you are living in Nixonland.



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Meanwhile, can you just imagine what we would learn locally if, say....This were to happen?


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