Rich People
Do you agree with this article and short video? Do you think this study is accurate? Any personal experiences you can share below? I would like to hear from you. I find studies on behavior, thinking and psychology very interesting always. I like to understand why we do or not do things. Understanding is half the battle for many.
Tsem Rinpoche
In a series of startling studies, psychologists at the University of California at Berkeley have found that “upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals.” Ongoing research is trying to find out what it is about wealth — or lack of it — that makes people behave they way they do. Paul Solman reports as part of his Making Sen$e series.
Any additional commentary to what’s contained in the video would be entirely superfluous…
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/richpeople.mp4
Some comments extracted from the source:
Mike B. −
Why does this require a study? I can tell you the answer right now: when you have obscene amounts of money people treat you differently. You can do whatever you want, talk however you want, buy whatever you want. Nothing holds value, because you can just buy a replacement. Therefore there is no consequence to your actions, and everything is disposable: items and people both become expendable. When you’re poor everything has value, because you can’t just simply throw it away and replace it. You have to really put time and effort into not only obtaining/creating, but also maintaining and sustaining what you have. You can’t just get on a private jet and leave the people who you’ve pissed off around you, therefore you tend to be less of a dick.
NSNY > Mike B.
Wealthy people also get LOTS of free stuff. Everyone wants to give you free things because they figure that you must sway a lot of influence, and that of course you’re going to run right out and tell everyone about your “thing” or use it in public, or connect them with some other important person. Seen it firsthand. It’s easy to stay well-off when you don’t have to buy things like clothing, cars and even – yes, a condo.
sflyons > Mike B.
Criminology studies have shown that the biggest deterrent to committing crime is the *likelihood* of being caught and punished (not the severity of the potential punishment). I think that can be safely extended to dickness generally. The sense of negative consequences is lower if you’re rich, especially born rich.
NSNY > Davis
People who have been fed with wealth since they were a child growing up are less responsible. Tend to quit halfway much more. Likely to not succeed much in life. Be very good in talking, explaining and justifying why they are huge losers and generally eloquent. Eloquent because they are self trained to justify why they always quit or have no results. They love to live at home or near their parents because easier to sponge off their parents. They are the ones with the most emotional ‘problems’ as they like to validate their situation. Their favorite defense is using depression as an escape from being responsible or producing results. They are always depressed. Always on some anti-depressants or seeing the analyst. They love to let the whole world know by fb and tweets how they are depressed or recovering AGAIN (Who gives a damn?). Every conversation is dominated by their depression stories. Boring to hell.
Mind you though, rich is subjective. It’s people who grew up without having to make much effort to live and pay expenditure. All was presented to them on a easy help yourself platter. So when they are adults, they expect everything to be handed to them also and when it’s not, they have major emotional eruptions. Mount St. Helens volcano would be benign next to their repeated boring tantrums when they don’t get what they want. I have two friends (one in NY and the other in Florida) and though we are close, this really describes them to a tea. If you grew up with everything easy for you, you will be use to wanting the same as an adult. Trust me. You won’t get it. No one will entertain this unless they are stupid!
sflyons > Jeanette L.
The ones who leach off their parents and still live at home even though they are adults are the ones that really turn me off. Hello!! Get your own place! And if you have kids, that’s worse! I have to schlep for a living and nothing is free. I have to keep my temper to myself and just work for that paycheck. No time for depressions and expressions of my mind. Just work and get that paycheck. This means putting up with things that made my character evolve. How about you? Still at home.
sflyons > Lyons
Your just jealous I’m rich! Get back to work for you and me, a martini please.
[Extracted from: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/rich_people_are_dicks_and_heres_the_proof]
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That’s profoundly got some truth in it, I believe. I think it’s largely due to the value & circumstances that they have learnt /was in during their growing up years…. And this survey definitely hit the point.
Rich people tend to be stable, flexible, able to make independent decisions, and more focused on themselves than others. They tend to understand the difference between value and price. They’re often selectively frugal. They spend money on things that bring value to their lives. Doing what they like with the money they have but not the poor whom they work hard to save what they want. The rich are likely to both have greater motivation and opportunities to engage in bribery and fraud. When they are rich, corruption comes in for some as such to lobby government for favourable policies in some cases. They could then translate their financial power into political power . While the richest continue to enjoy booming fortunes I do hope they could do more in helping the poor and do more charity work. Rich people when see an opportunity in every situation and work to explore it while the poor people focus on problems in their daily lives. Interesting survey .
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
There is a saying rich men have dreams. Poor men die to make them come true. When one is rich they take things for granted, nothing is valued to them and don’t appreciate things but definitely not the poor. The rich will derive motivation from their financial success, and refuse the belief that money begets corruption. To say it simple the rich will do things where else the poor can’t. People born with a golden spoon will not know much the sufferings the poor had gone through. When the rich understand the pain and sufferings of the poor they will be more responsible and generous to do more for charity. The rich working up from nothing to riches will know more and be successful in life. To me rich at heart is more important , good health and good sense are two of life’s greatest blessings to have. Well survey work of the rich and the poor for us to understand better between the difference.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
Interesting survey. I think we all have certain perception and expectation of how a person should behave when he is either rich or poor. Hence, from the survey when the condition change the rich and poor will behave differently. So our mind and action is always dependent and influence by the outer condition. Something that we should watch out as we should control our mind and not depends on outer condition. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article.
rich people are rich because they created the causes to be rich in this life or their previous ones, poor people are poor for the same reasons, rich people can be good or bad just as poor people can be good or bad, who am I to judge? Actions have consequences, nobody likes liars, thieves, hypocrites, cowards, moaners or show offs.
This research only show the behavior of human during Kaliyuga. The behavior of the rich was imputed on them as a way to show off the result of their success. the poor will adapt and inferior behavior in-front of more superior person for their own survivor. note how fast their behavior could change during the monopoly game! Thank you Rinpoche for working my lazy mind.
My conclusion would be being in others shoes to understand others’ situation. By helping the rich to feel poor they’ll be more charitable and helping the poor to feel rich they may gain confident in their life. Environment can nurture one’s behaviour and thinking pattern, but it does not make them less human or different than others. People should learn to be more considerate and less self centric. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
唉！ 钱不是万能，但没有钱就万万都不能。还有再多的钱，死也万万不能带去，但也可能引起下一代的造孽，可悲呀。所以我认为想下世有好的转世，就在自己有钱的时候，累积功德，广结善缘， 把多余的钱财做慈善，回馈社会，帮助弱小团体。或捐助宗教团体。让我们累积更多的功德，功德无量。切记！切记！谢谢仁波切的分享。
Dear Rinpoche,
This is a very interesting subject and the experiments that follow may not be in a science lab but yet it really shows a lot of positive signs that the study are quite true.
Take the first part of the video for example, the narrator said that 90 percent of people do not stop to let pedestrians cross the road and most of the people were from mainly the people with cars such as BMW’s, Mercedes and other expensive and grand cars.
Though I have never really observed through my eyes because i never knew that even by people not stopping their cars and letting people cross the Zebra crossing can tell so much about a rich person’s mind.
The Monopoly experiment was also quite a straightforward and true test on turning a rich person’s mind around as well as turning a poor person’s mind around.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this very interesting video and article!
Rest Well
Love
Jutika
Rich and influential people, well they are very used to get away with everything. And every time they break the rules and laws, they get more and more habituated. And if they have a speeding ticket, so what they can pay it off? If we always think we can get away with anything, it becomes ingrained and a habit develops.
Hmmmm… Well… I think it is not the money per se that is the problem. I know people from wealthy backgrounds and some ûber wealthy backgrounds and even within those circles there are varying exceptions and differences.
It really points to the fact that money is not the root of the problem but the upbringing of the said persons. Sometimes with the perception of wealth comes the imposed societal “norms” and that I believe is the root cause of the negativity or exploratory behavior in wealthy people… NOT the size of their bank accounts!
From my own social observation backed by some researched studies I have read, it has shown that the upper-class individuals are often less cognizant of others, ignoring the emotions of how others feel, less generous (except for showing offs) and are more disengaing socially in society. Being in the upper class echelon, it may be easier to act unethically toward others if you’re not thinking a damn about how others feel! Many in the high society class, feel that perhaps by such self-perpetuating behaviour, would increase their high status recognition, therefore further prompting them to behave otherwise! But, being rich are not necessarily bad – they just need to be reminded of such unwarranted pattern of behaviour. Sometimes a simple reminder of what has been described may actually do a lot to change such pattern of behaviour. Anyway, it takes all kind of people to make the World!
This is an interesting study.
Did BMW drivers arrogant? If you do a search on the web will probably find out there are quite a lot of articles on “certains types of car owner and their behaviours”. I came across an article on certain types of personalities will attract to certain type of cars.
What is interesting is that, to label BMW drivers as arrogant drivers not only happens in Europe countries, in China there is even trend of labelling BMW drivers as bad drivers since many incidents of BMW drivers of the country are rude and some resort to violence when they involve in road accidents.
To own a BMW or others luxury cars doesn’t mean you are wealthy. In this era of materialism, your car is your society status label. To own a luxury car could mean you are wealthy at the same time it could just mean you opt for this brand of car to show your status, to attract certain types of clients/girlfriends/boyfriends/friends. It does not tell how much money you have in the bank; or how civilized or how kind you are.
My point is to drive a BMW does not mean you are rich, it could be a personal choice of lifestyle.
In the other hand, I am thinking about why people interested in doing this kind of research and at the same time have many supported it?
Does this imply that there is significant numbers of “anti-rich/wealthy”people out there? Is this have something to do with the way how wealth was (not fairly) distributed in society? Or there are many who do not work hard at the same time not happy with hard working and successful people?
You’re right, Wah Ying… just because one owns a luxury car or lives in a big house, it does not mean that the person is wealthy. I know many people who have taken a large loans just so they can drive an expensive car. It is probably to show people how “successful” they are and thus just a sign of insecurity. And they would even cut down on other expenditure just to feed this illusion. And why? Because society puts forward this illusion that if you’re successful, people will respect you. Therefore people keep chasing the false objective of acquiring material wealth.
All these material goods give a variety of impressions to people. Yes some people will think wow if you drive a nice car, but i believe that respect is not so easily acquired. In fact, if you drive a nice car but you’re a lousy character, people won’t respect you even if you drive the most expensive car on earth. I believe that true respect will be for people who are humble, hardworking and show strong moral principles, regardless of what car you drive 🙂
This really is a very interesting study, it has conducted what many people have been using wealth as an excuse for their failures or success. I really like the experiments thrown in to test the psychological effects it does to people who are pretend rich and pretend poor, and was really astonished by the findings of behaviour from them. From some point of view of this topic I really agree with their opinions of how the wealthy behave as oppose to the poor. But then again not everyone is the same, but majority is as they say they are.
Their use of monopoly I find is a very good idea and how they study the behavioural patterns is quite cool. I’ve played the game before and understand how someone would feel if they were rich or poor, being uncomfortable in a position where their actions would matter when you’re poor as oppose to taking advantage of their position at a higher risk when you are rich. Behaviour when being rich in monopoly the user would start to take demand and charge in order to lead themselves further into the game that they would be safe, but when relating to real life how much can you earn or do in order to truly feel safe?
People may give the example of Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, but when someone comes to the point where they have so much that earning more would be meaningless, they still have the “money” and “luxury” to give to others and be generous. Everybody displays different sort of Ethics, I have met really “wealthy people” who still partake in charitable activites on the other hand still have met “poor people” who are stingy with their expenses and give their reason not to do charitable activities because they cannot afford to do it.
It really depends on how someone would be brought up by society, environment and parents. I think the cause of rich people behaving more unethical in this study may be due to being born in a rich family, where their parents are more focused on earning the money for the family but forgetting to realise they are not building a close relationship with their spouse to teach them any ethics. But then again there may be many possibilities and I could be wrong.
I also find what NSNY said really interesting. When being handed to everything so easily at such a young age and growing up to never completing anything in their lives quitting half way, always try to justify their failures and talk their way out of it and push it aside trying to make people forget they quit at something. But later finding it hard in life that nothing would be given to you on a plate as it had been when you were a child. I think i still suffer in this behaviour in some ways but I am aware of it thanks to my parents always knocking it into my head that they wouldnt always be around for me to support me. I’m trying my best to get myself out of it and try to support myself, but always worry whether that would ever happen. I see what sflyons says “the ones who leech of their parents and still live at home even though they are adults…” and find this thought to always be my motivation to work hard in my career to lessen the burden off my parents and hopefully one day be able to take care of them in return and my siblings.
Watching this video and reading peoples comments extracted by Rinpoche has made me think a lot of my current position and my behaviour as a person in my position. Only wanting to be a better person from this lesson of study. I really want to thank Rinpoche for sharing with us this interesting study on the behaviours of people in relation to their wealth and hope that we get the right lesson to be learnt intended by Rinpoche. I hope Rinpoche is well thank you.
I want to work hard so I can give Rinpoche lots of Ang Paus, who doesn’t like Ang Paus. Hehe.
Shelly tai on 23 July 2013 at 5pm
Is true or not true for rich people to misbehave . If anyone of us who learn the dharma and transform our mind then whether we are rich or poor we still do something do benefit others. So the point is the dharma not the wealth. Thank you Rinpiche for sharing this video with us.
This is an interesting psychological study. It seems like wealth gives people arrogance and a feeling of superiority, which is why branded goods and luxury items do so well because people are inherently insecure and seek security in material items. A Prada bag or a diamond in the middle of Africa means nothing because nobody values such a branded item there, so everything only exists on imputed value. People equate rich and power, and most of the time, it is true – the rich are powerful because everything is dependent on economic strength, from a person to a whole country. The richest countries in the world control the poorer ones; materially and psychologically.
It is also interesting to observe the nouveau riche – who may have well earned their wealth through hard work (as opposed to the old rich, who inherited their wealth from the sweat of their grandparents and beyond). The nouveau riche are usually even more ostentatious with their wealth and arrogant because they feel that they deserve that status since they worked their butts off for their wealth.
Pride comes before fall though, and those who do not take care of their wealth often squander it and suffer later. I guess it’s karma. Dharma is the only guideline to really ensure that our inner and outer wealth is looked after. Sometimes the more wealthy need Dharma more because their attachments are stronger than those who have not. Those who have the opportunity to come across Dharma – whether rich or poor – are really the fortunate ones indeed.
Dear Rinpoche, they are really smart, I have no idea how they can judge by just looking at people’s behavior? I like how they use the monopoly game as an experiment. For me, I understand only some part of the whole experiment maybe because I’m too young to understand or I’m just not smart enough.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.As for the research done in the US there might some truth in what they say.But these does not represent everyone in general.
If the society takes religious practice as a past time and they start worshiping money and status as their goal in life.Then ego and greed will get the better part of their behavior in life.
There are some rich people who had reach the peak of the fame and wealth .Who could see beyond that and could be very compassionate and generous without any agenda as they had it all.
It is normally those up coming middle class that will bend the rules to gain attention,wealth and try very much to gain more to secure their position.
If society constantly apply some dharma knowledge from what religion they come from in their daily lives,society will look at the norm of life differently with more caring and sharing.
Nice share!
I think being rich or poor is not the cause but the attachment to material wealth that is the cause.
From a psychological standpoint, it is more likely for the rich to be attached to their material wealth. This is the result of a cognitive bias called the endowment effect. (Basically, you overvalue what you have.)
However, it is also possible for the not-so-rich to be attached to it as well. Imagine a poor person, worrying and thinking about nothing except money — always jealous of rich people and measuring everyone according to the barometer of wealth.
Those who are attached to money will likely exhibit more unethical behaviour – the rich would of course be able to practice it right away, but the not-so-rich will also practice it if/when they become rich.
Those who don’t have such attachments will likely not behave this way regardless of their financial status. 🙂
I do not agree with the video as in Singapore no matter you are rich or poor u are as the poor u don’t stop for pedestrians u just drive as fast as you can same as the traffic light. People in Singapore are greedy they take lots of things that are not yours like tasting the trial food we take the whole plate. So people should not be judged like that,
You have a point there. Money money money their tantra?
Being rich or poor is a state of the mind. If the mind is expose to both state of mind then they are more likely to be charitable and altruistic. In Buddhism the same truth has been expounded via the Four Noble Truth. If one is exposed to the truth of suffering than certain realization arise resulting in a more altruistic behavior.
So we can say the rich is not rich and the poor is not poor. Everything is from the mind. It opens up a lot of possibilities, doesn’t it?
It is programmed into our caveman-dominated genes. As hunter- gatherers for most of our existence, successful homo sapiens have more food inventory and hence are able to take more risk.
On the other hand, relatively unsuccessful humans have to take less risk and even bow to the successful ones in hope that the latter may share the bounty.
At the extreme, when a homo sapien has so much inventory that he can feed ten generations, he can of course be very generous and share because it will not affect his well being even an iota. I.e. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates
Dear Rinpoche,
Not every rich people think and act differently from middle-class or poor people.Everyone is an individual.There are many other factors that can effect a person’s behavior.
Many people think class behavior is measured by the amount of money people have and it is not completely true. Money buys advantages but other factors are involved too. There are many “rich” people who are lovely,friendly and kind people.Those don’t depend on money.
Thank you for sharing this interesting post Rinpoche.
Maybe rich and wealth may lead someone lost easily but I do belive there are good people who are rich, there also got bad people in poor society.regardless poor or rich, is human mind decide his own character.
Interesting study! Although it is true that some rich people can feel entitled to get the whole world but I think the documentary failed to hightlight abt unethical behavior done by the well off such robbery thiefing. it aldo failed to highlight that less well off people can feel depressed too and experiece fear to move forward in life and try new things. That can cause unhappiness too.
I think extreme wealth breeds unethical behavior, people who tend to worship money worship very little else. At least that has been my experience.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thanks for sharing out another great video and article. I cannot comment the legitimate of such study and there could be possibly truth on surface. Whether the question of Rich People have such pattern of behavior by default? I’m not sure that is 100% accurate too.
Now I have experienced dealing with wealthy people not only rich in terms of monetary but wealthy in various areas in life too. I believed one that being rich financially does not represent automatically being wealthy. Wealthy comes from mindset and those that being rich behaving such most likely have not gone through proper education on their mindset.
There are many self-made millionaire that I know of are very humble and practically are more giving than people that make lesser in their living. Those that are wealthy like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet don’t focus on more money in their life, they focus on what they want to do in their life.
Hence, being rich is just a label. Even they are rich does not mean they are rich in their mindset. Our right mindset determine us how we behave even whether we are rich or not.
I worked for the Red Cross collecting donations and it´s really strange. The moment you see a mercedes or a big gate you don´t need to knock at that door but unemployed people always give you money for Red Cross and charity.
From my point of view, this experiment result doesn’t really represented the all behavior of rich people because human mind are variable and mind can be change in different situation when adopted in different environment . I do see richer people are really promise to do the charity works that will beneficial to the people. Thanks.
I remember reading about an experiment, forgot where though where scientists left wallets on the streets on various rich and poor neighborhoods. The rich neighborhoods, oddly enough, did not return the wallets and the poor people returned the wallets. Interesting. Thank you for sharing Rinpoche.