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HuckleB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:15 PM
Original message
Upper-Class People Have Trouble Recognizing Others' Emotions (Study Indicates)
Edited on Wed Nov-24-10 03:15 PM by HuckleB
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101122172008.htm

"Upper-class people have more educational opportunities, greater financial security, and better job prospects than people from lower social classes, but that doesn't mean they're more skilled at everything. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds surprisingly, that lower-class people are better at reading the emotions of others.

The researchers were inspired by observing that, for lower-class people, success depends more on how much they can rely on other individuals. For example, if you can't afford to buy support services, such as daycare service for your children, you have to rely on your neighbors or relatives to watch the kids while you attend classes or run errands, says Michael W. Kraus of the University of California-San Francisco. He co-wrote the study with Stéphane Côté of the University of Toronto and Dacher Keltner of the University of California-Berkeley.

One experiment used volunteers who worked at a university. Some had graduated from college and others had not; researchers used educational level as a proxy for social class. The volunteers did a test of emotion perception, in which they were instructed to look at pictures of faces and indicate which emotions each face was displaying. People with more education performed worse on the task than people with less education. In another study, university students who were of higher social standing (determined from each student's self-reported perceptions of his or her family's socioeconomic status) had a more difficult time accurately reading the emotions of a stranger during a group job interview.

These results suggest that people of upper-class status aren't very good at recognizing the emotions other people are feeling. The researchers speculate that this is because they can solve their problems, like the daycare example, without relying on others -- they aren't as dependent on the people around them.

..."



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hmm. Sure, the study must be replicated. Nonetheless, it's quite interesting, and replication could make it quite telling. Maybe.

:toast:
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tularetom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
1. I can't tell if you're pissed off about this article or not
I'll ask my butler.
:shrug:
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HuckleB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:20 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Is this your man?
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tularetom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 04:06 PM
Response to Reply #3
13. Sure looks like him
I'll ask him when he gets back.

I sent him out for some grey poupon.
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HuckleB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 05:39 PM
Response to Reply #13
20. Now you're going to be in trouble with Hannity.
Uh, speaking of individuals who can't read the emotions of others...
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rfranklin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:19 PM
Response to Original message
2. It seems that in some circles insensitivity is cultivated....
because being too empathetic might mean a reduction in the rate of accumulating wealth at the expense of one's fellow man.
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:38 PM
Response to Reply #2
11. Those "circles" exist right here at DU. It comes down to stubbornness to change.
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Kennah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:23 PM
Response to Original message
4. They aren't very good at recognizing the emotions of others ...
... because they don't give a shit about the emotions of others.

Bring me breakfast, prune my hedges, fetch me my cloak, lower my taxes and catch the trickle running down my leg.

That's OK. Just keep partying like it's http://books.google.com/books?id=igqMIP7OjrAC&lpg=PA312&ots=AssOMQQ4Zu&dq=peasant%20revolt%201358%20St.%20Leu%20Oise%20Valley&pg=PA312#v=onepage&q=peasant%20revolt%201358%20St.%20Leu%20Oise%20Valley&f=false
">1358.
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happyslug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 11:24 PM
Response to Reply #4
23. More on the French Peasant Revolt of 1358
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquerie

Almost no peasant revolts before 1336 (local revolts were known, but almost none against more then one "Noble" house i.e Peasants against their liege lord NOT against the Nobles as a class)

The main reason for the change was that before the 1300s, the difference between a "Noble", a "Knight" and a "Peasant" was NOT as clear as it would become after about 1300. Emperor Frederick II of Germany who ruled in the 1200s, was of a family that had been peasants just 100 years before. Ability was more important then blood lines and your "network" of friends. Starting about 1300, the "Nobles" started to view themselves as separate from the peasants (as time went on this could be quite severe, for example by the 1600s Nobles in Poland consisted themselves descendant from the ancient Sarmatians, but that the Polish Peasants were NOT, one of the more sever example of this line of thought).

Another factor was the general drop in income do to the start of the Mini-Ice Age and the drop in population do to the Black death (less peasants, less total income, but the Nobles wanted the same amount of Income they had before both events, at the expense of the peasants).

These two threads may sound independent of each other, but are often inter-related. The reason is that as a person loses power, he or she then starts to wear the symbol of Authority. For Example Augustus was the absolute ruler of Rome. All he ever wore was the symbol of being the First Senator, i.e. the large purple slash on his toga. Augustus did NOT need to show that he was all powerful, for he was. 200 years later Diocletian became Emperor of a much weaker Empire, and thus adopted the robes and trappings of an Eastern Monarch. Why? Diocletian hold on the Empire was weak AND the Empire was much weaker then it had been under Augustus (Result of the growth in Power of the Goths and the Persians AND the start of the Dark Age Cold Period which saw the general decline of agriculture and thus wealth of the Roman Empire).

A more recent example was the last years of the Soviet Union, Stalin was NEVER the President of the Soviet Union (a title only invented for Gorbachev in the late 1980s), nor was Stalin "Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR" the predecessor title to President of the Soviet Union. Stalin did NOT have to be, he was all powerful. Now their was a "Cult" built around Stalin as a "Great Leader" but while parts of it survived into the 1950s, most of that "Cult" ended with the end of the Show Trials of 1938 (Those show Trials showed everyone who was in charge of the Soviet Union and that was Stalin, thus he did NOT need to further the "Cult" of Stalin after that date, but everyone in the Soviet Union did so, do to the fact Stalin was All Powerful). Given that situation Chairmen of the Communist Party was all Stalin ever wanted to be, like Augustus he did NOT need the trappings of a ruler, he had complete power. Gorbachev, on the other hand, had to deal with a rapidly deteriorating situation. Oil production had peaked in 1987, and with that peak came a drop in production AND a drop in foreign currency (Used to pay for US Wheat and other items needed by the Soviet Union but produced in the West). About 40% of the Soviet Economy was tied in with the military, 10% is generally considered as high as you can go without serious economic problems. Gorbachev tried to cut back military spending, but that lead to attacks from inside the Country. Thus Gorbachev position as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was much weaker then Stalin had ever been. Thus to show he still had power Gorbachev invented and had himself elected to be the President of the Soviet Union. It did not help, the Soviet Union dissolved under December 21, 1991. It is another example of a weak leader going for the Trappings of Power in order to hold onto power. A strong leader does NOT need such trappings.

As with Stalin-Gorbachev and Augustus-Diocletian, the nobles of the 1300-1500s were slowly losing power do to a general decline in wealth. To maintain their position over the peasants the Nobles adopted the trappings that they were better then the Peasants, something the nobles of the Dark Ages, Roughly 450 AD to 1000 AD, and the High Middle ages, about 1000 AD to 1300 AD, did NOT have to do for they had more wealth to share with the peasants and the need for such Nobles were clear (i.e. to protect the peasants from raids from people outside the local area to raid the peasants).

Please note in both the Dark Ages and the High Middle Ages it was NOT unknown for the invading raiders to stay and become the protective nobles. Sometime with the peasants inviting the invaders, sometimes the Church, sometimes the old Roman Nobility. It did not matter HOW the Nobles became the Nobles of the Dark Ages and High Middle Ages, the peasants and the Nobles quickly came to an understanding. The Nobles were entitled to payment from the peasants, but that payment was in exchange for protection. By 1300 this understanding were under strain, the Nobles were deemed to be less needed (given that no one was invading Europe once the Viking raids ended about 950 AD and Crusades ended for all practical purposes with the only Papal Condemned Crusade, the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204 AD) but the Nobles still wanted the same income they had always been entitled to, even as total income fell after 1300 with the start of the Mini-ice age. Thus you have a situation much like today, the poor is being told to pay more, through today the economy is still growing and thus the pressure on the working class is NOT near as bad as it was between 1300 and the late 1600 when the Mini-ice Age bottom out and agriculture started to expand (Supported by the new crops, Potatoes and Beans, that can survive in a more hostile environment then the traditional Grain crops of Europe). Please note, France was one of the last Country to embrace the Potato and that failure lead to the great Famine of 1787 which lead to the French Revolution of 1789. Thus economic hardship continued throughout the period till the end of the Mini-ice age about 1850 and only with the general improvement in Agriculture do to the end of the Mini Ice Age do you see the end of Peasant revolts (Through the Peasants of China and India revolted throughout the 1800s and was the force behind the Boxer rebellion of 1903 and the Communist movement in China from the 1920s till the Communist took over China in 1949).

List of Peasant revolts in Europe, 1275-1653:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_revolt_in_late_medieval_Europe

Some more on the Sarmatians:
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/sarmatian.shtml
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Anthropology/Sarmatians/sarmatians.htm
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/Sarmatians.html

More on the Mini ice age:
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/little_ice_age.html
http://www.meteo.psu.edu/~mann/shared/articles/littleiceage.pdf

Report of a 536 AD Meteorite might have caused the Dark Age Cold Period:
http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2010/02/did-meteorite-cause-mini-ice-age-in.html
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:26 PM
Response to Original message
5. So THAT's why the Yale government people don't get it.
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HuckleB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:27 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. They may not recognize their own emotions. -eom-
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Still Blue in PDX Donating Member (633 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
7. So it's like an acquired Asperger's syndome?
I'm a poor working schlub so I don't have time to actually read the article now, but it does sounds fascinating.
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happyslug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 11:42 PM
Response to Reply #7
24. Autism, Asperger, Schizophrenia and Genius are all inter related
The problem is HOW that relationship exist is unknown. It could be that how we interact with people, slows down our ability to look and understand nature (and the inverse, the more we are able to understand nature and how things work, the less time we have to learn on how to interact with people).

The Book the "Lord of the Flys" was about how a group of upper middle class teen age boys would inter react if left alone without adult supervision. In the cases where Teenage boys (and girls) have found themselves isolated for a long period of time, it has almost always been lower or working class teenagers and in such cases such teenagers worked TOGETHER for that what was valued more then who was on top (Which was of the greatest value to the teenagers in "Lord of the Flys). Leaders existed, but more on an as needed basis, and then by ability to do what was needed then anything else (i.e. a person with an idea on how to move things as a group would be the "leader" in that movement).

Furthermore, lower class people tend to appreciate assistance they get from other people more then Upper Class people. This is shown in studies of Lawyers and their Clients. The Clients with the least satisfaction with their Lawyers ( tend to be upper middle class people (and this is true even of their win the case). On the other hand working class and poor people gave much higher satisfaction reports for lawyers that help them even if the help was just to guide them through the legal system (i.e. the client lost). Similar reports go to tax preparers (Even if the poor has the taxes done by someone with a high school diploma and the Upper Middle Class person has his taxes done by a CPA), and even Doctors.

Upper Middle Class people act and feel like they are better then even the people they hire as experts, given that nature that such people have a lower ability to see emotion does NOT surprise me. To see Emotion you must want to work with someone in a way that both participates benefit, not just pay a person to do a job. The difference sounds slight, but it is the difference between working with someone, and treating that person like some object to buy.
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eridani Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-25-10 02:51 AM
Response to Reply #7
27. Not really. In the case of the upper class not giving a shit comes first
In the case of Aspergers, not being able to read social signals comes first. As one mom of an Aspie once said "My son wouldn't hurt a fly--provided that he understands that the fly is being hurt."
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county worker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:29 PM
Response to Original message
8. noblesse oblige [(noh- bles oh- bleezh )]
Cultural Dictionary
noblesse oblige <(noh- bles oh- bleezh )>


The belief that the wealthy and privileged are obliged to help those less fortunate. From French, meaning “nobility obligates.”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:29 PM
Response to Original message
9. Fantastic! Thank you!
I have immediate use for this! :evilgrin:

Thanks so much for posting! :yourock:
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HuckleB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:34 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. You're welcome.
:toast:
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NV Whino Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 03:53 PM
Response to Original message
12. Too much Botox.
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Zorra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 04:12 PM
Response to Original message
14. Oh, la dee dah. Like I should care? Pass the grey poupon, peasant, I'm in a hurry.
The slaves are to be whipped, and I want to watch.
:sarcasm:
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ieoeja Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 04:15 PM
Response to Original message
15. Or ... are educated people just less willing to make snap judgements? (nt)
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HuckleB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 04:16 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. That's not what the study shows, no.
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Better Today Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 04:22 PM
Response to Original message
17. Trouble recognizing? or more likely resistance to giving a shit about others' emotions.
Edited on Wed Nov-24-10 04:24 PM by Better Today
Additionally the idea of education being a proxy for social class isn't terribly worthy, imo. The heading should be directly related to education rather than socio-economic status since it was based on education and not any known social or economic class.
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HuckleB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 04:48 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. They likely define their reasons for using education on that part of the study in the study.
Edited on Wed Nov-24-10 04:48 PM by HuckleB
However, socioeconomic status was a direct comparison in two other parts of the study (see that last two paragraphs).
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diane in sf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 05:35 PM
Response to Original message
19. They don't want to see other people's emotions when they are going to run roughshod over them
to make their money--ignorance quells potential cognitive dissonance. They don't want to have to recognize what they are doing to others because it would interfere with their wonderful self-image. There was a ton of alcohol abuse among rich kids I knew at college--a family pattern for many--part of the damping down of feeling to to ensure they could do whatever was necessary to maintain their exalted financial state.
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felix_numinous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 06:45 PM
Response to Original message
21. What an interesting topic--
sociopathy, which is a complete lack of empathy, runs in families. Perhaps someday geneticists can determine if extreme stoicism and lack of empathic skills can be inherited, and to what extent they are due to our nurturing. Apparently sociopaths can be identified on MRI. But the implications of genetic research into temperament are pretty spooky stuff, IMHO.

I have read books about extremely sensitive people, some who are highly empathic, and I believe this runs in families as well. They are at the other end of the sensitivity spectrum, with most people somewhere in between.

It is to our detriment that sociopaths are the ones that end up in places of power because of their ruthlessness, because in large groups they end up completely overpowering the people around them who have any empathy at all. I think this sort of thing has been going on in the human race for a long time, the ruthless tribes overpowering the peaceful sensitive tribes. This sort of domination started back in the bronze age.
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-10 07:03 PM
Response to Reply #21
22. What books have you found on sensitivity?
I've read The Highly Sensitive Person, and Sensitivity: Agony and Ecstasy.

Others?
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felix_numinous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-26-10 03:24 PM
Response to Reply #22
29. I read
Highly Sensitive Person, and was thinking about The Chalice and The Blade by Rianne Eisler, which is another one of my favorite books. I haven't read Sensitivity Agony & Ecstasy but will check that one out :)
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Tsiyu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-25-10 01:50 AM
Response to Reply #21
25. You are so correct


You know the "smirk." B*sh had it, nearly every rich frat boy wears it.

It's the smirk of "I got mine. Fuck you."

But it's also the smirk of kids who have been neglected.

You combine emotional detachment with access to the wheels of our out-of-control commerce, and you've got a recipe for the disaster we have today.

Narcissistic sociopaths are running the show.

Who needs to read feelings when you're a bloodthirsty beast?

Thankfully, most of us can function beyond our primitive brains.









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LongTomH Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-26-10 04:21 PM
Response to Reply #25
30. I call that the "Republican Smirk!"
So many Republicans have it. Watch the RW talking heads that show up on news programs.

The author of "Bush on the Couch" stated that a chronic smirk showed a lack of empathy for others.
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eridani Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-25-10 02:39 AM
Response to Original message
26. They don't have to. They do things to others. Others are not allowed to do unto them. n/t
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StarsInHerHair Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-25-10 05:02 AM
Response to Original message
28. that's bs about 'not having to rely on others'-like their nanny,
Edited on Thu Nov-25-10 05:07 AM by StarsInHerHair
their maid, their pilot, their personal assistant-it's just that those relationships are monetarily-based and not friendship-based.

I picture Paris Hilton-she didn't even know geography, good thing her pilot did. & W, and all those experts he took such pleasure in 'dressing down'.
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