Upper-class people are more likely to exhibit unethical behavior, cheat, cheat, cheat, eat candy intended for others, or lie to enrich themselves even more, according to a study by the University of California, Berkeley, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) .
For example, when it comes to driving behavior, the researchers showed that upper-class drivers are four times more likely to commit a violation at a crossroads and not to stop at crosswalks . Another experiment conducted with a game of dice and a reward revealed that individuals with higher social status were more likely to lie about their score. In addition, when they were offered a package of sweets, indicating that its content was for children who were in an adjoining room but could take as many as they wanted, the people from the more affluent classes ate twice as many sweets as the rest of the participants in the experiment.
As Paul Piff and his colleagues conclude, belonging to a higher social class is linked to an increase in greed and a reduction in honesty and ethics. "The pursuit of self-interest is a more important motivation for the elite , and the greed that increases with wealth and social status can lead some to misbehave," the study authors state.
