The Empathy Ceiling: The Rich Are Different — And Not In a Good Way, Studies Suggest

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/10-7

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….”

More at the link --

[undeterred]

1. No surprise.

And people who become rich evidently lose their empathy.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. And lots of people that have no empathy become very rich. In fact,...

... I'd say having no empathy works in their favor to get mega-rich, since they don't care about others and will do anything for wealth.

[pnwmom]

5. Narcissistic people have no empathy and they can often convince other people

that they are as special as they think they are; and then, if they become high achievers, their "grandiose" conception of themselves ends up having some basis in reality.

Anyway, it's easy to push other people aside in your drive to succeed if you are a narcissist with no empathy in the first place.

[Sal Minella]

6. There's a video clip out and about of Mittens complaining that

expecting the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes is "attacking the successful."

I remember reading about a one-woman experiment many years ago -- an artistically talented young woman rode on buses, sketching passengers and then presenting each passenger with the sketch she had done. Poor people usually tried to pay her for the drawings -- rich people would accept the drawings and then gaze into the distance, with no offer of payment.

[pnwmom]

8. I wonder how the woman decided who on the bus was rich?

The results make sense, but I'm just wondering how she got them.

[Sal Minella]

10. I probably should have said "better-dressed" and

"less-well-dressed" -- I read about this many, many years ago and it stuck with me because at that time, it ran counter to what I would have expected.

I know better now.

[pnwmom]

11. Interesting. Then she might have also been comparing

more narcissistic (concerned with appearance) people vs. less narcissistic (and less concerned with appearance) people.

And narcissists are, by definition, low on empathy. So very spiffy dressers are more likely both to be narcissistic and to be low on empathy.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Yep. My sister always says that the rich are generally of two types:

(1) The ruthless (and unempathetic) who crushed others on the way to success but did it with a smile; and,

(2) Those who inherited money, live in a bubble, are shielded from real life, and think it's oh-so-easy to get money (of course, since they don't have to struggle, ever), so they have no empathy towards those who suffer. In other words, they were born on third base and think they hit a triple.

There are exceptions, but they are exceptions and not the rule.

[Vanje]

3. Thanks . Interesting article.

[Prometheus Bound]

4. An aside: I think he should use the term 'lower income people', not 'lower class people'.

[OHdem10]

7. Do they mention any difference between "Old Money" and

"New Rich"???? There is a difference.

[pnwmom]

9. I would also hope there's a difference between

Dem-rich (such as Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, or Nancy Pelosi) vs. Rethug-rich (Bush, Scharzenegger, et al.)