How to tip like a 1 percenter

Discussion in 'Politics' started by turkeyneck, Feb 27, 2012.


  1. Don't be a naive home schooled mook. Get out of the house, man.


    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthy-more-likely-lie-cheat-200339245.html


    Wealthy More Likely To Lie or Cheat: Researchers
    BloombergBy Elizabeth Lopatto | Bloomberg – 22 hours ago


    Maybe, as the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald suggested, the rich really are different. They're more likely to behave badly, according to seven experiments that weighed the ethics of hundreds of people.

    The "upper class," as defined by the study, were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to increase their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work, researchers reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Taken together, the experiments suggest at least some wealthier people "perceive greed as positive and beneficial," probably as a result of education, personal independence and the resources they have to deal with potentially negative consequences, the authors wrote.

    While the tests measured only "minor infractions," that factor made the results, "even more surprising," said Paul Piff, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of California , Berkeley, and a study author.

    One experiment invited 195 adults recruited using Craigslist to play a game in which a computer "rolled dice" for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate. The numbers each participant rolled were the same; anyone self reporting a total higher than 12 was lying about their score. Those in wealthier classes were found to be more likely to fib, Piff said.

    "A $50 prize is a measly sum to people who make $250,000 a year," he said. "So why are they more inclined to cheat? For a person with lower socioeconomic status, that $50 would get you more, and the risks are small."

    Community Standards

    Poorer participants may be less likely to cheat because they must rely more on their community to get by, and thus are more likely adhere to community standards, Piff suggested. By comparison, "upper-class individuals are more self-focused, they privilege themselves over others, and they engage in self- interested patterns of behavior," he said in a telephone interview.

    To be sure, Piff and his colleagues also said the associations they found were likely to have exceptions, pointing to Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., who has pledged the majority of his holdings to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other charities, and the whistle-blowing of Cynthia Cooper and Sherron Watkins, former officials of Worldcom Inc. and Enron Corp (ENRNQ)., respectively.

    Less wealthy individuals also can behave badly, they wrote, noting the relationship between poverty and violent crime in previous research. They urged further study to determine the "boundaries" of bad behavior spurred by greed.

    Visual Evidence

    The studies Piff and his colleagues completed weren't meant to measure the ties between socioeconomic status and violent crime, but rather simple bad behavior, he said.

    Some of the experiments offered visual evidence, for instance determining whether people with more expensive cars observed traffic laws in the San Francisco Bay Area, yielding to cars and pedestrians at an intersection, or whether individuals took candy identified as being set aside for kids. Others polled people on what decision they might make in a given situation.

    [Also see: 10 Meaningless Bits of Business Jargon]

    In the traffic tests, about one-third of drivers in higher- status cars cut off other drivers at an intersection watched by the researchers, about double those in less costly cars. Additionally, almost half of the more expensive cars didn't yield when a pedestrian entered the crosswalk while all of the lowest-status cars let the pedestrian cross. These experiments involved 426 vehicles.

    Salary Negotiation

    Another test asked 108 adults found through Amazon Inc.'s (AMZN) work-recruiting website Mechanical Turk to assume the role of an employer negotiating a salary with someone seeking long-term employment. They were told several things about the job, including that it would shortly be eliminated. Upper-class individuals were more likely not to mention to the job-seeker the impermanence of the position, the research found.

    Meredith McGinley, an assistant professor at Chatham University in Pittsburgh who wasn't involved in the study, was critical of how some of the experiments were designed.

    The design of the car experiments complicates the picture because having a flashy car doesn't necessarily mean the driver is wealthy, said McGinley, who studies positive social behavior. In the experiment involving candy, the participants were told they could have it even though the children were waiting for it. They may have felt they were doing nothing wrong, she said.

    The research indicates that valuing greed leads to unethical behavior, not necessarily that social class causes bad behavior, McGinley said, adding, "greediness seems like a much more substantial predictor than income."

    Previous Research

    The study builds on previous research that has shown wealthy people are worse at recognizing how others feel and are more likely to be disengaged during social interactions than others, the authors wrote in the paper.

    That seems to be the case even in primates, said Piff, who describes his status growing up as being "relatively comfortable, middle-class." Because of his education, he's now "probably upper-middle class," he said.

    "It's not that the rich are innately bad, but as you rise in the ranks -- whether as a person or a nonhuman primate -- you become more self-focused," Piff said. "You can change that by reminding upper-class people of the needs of others. That may not be their default, but have them do it is sufficient to increase their patterns of altruistic behavior."

    To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at elopatto@bloomberg.net.

    To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net.
     
    #51     Feb 28, 2012
  2. TD80

    TD80

    Do you hold on to losing trades too?


     
    #52     Feb 28, 2012

  3. Let me think about this.

    Sometimes I do.
     
    #53     Feb 28, 2012
  4. jem

    jem

    any article which pretends Buffett is some sort of ethical person because he "pledged" his money to his friends foundation is the type of crap only a liberal would accept as even remotely true.

    look at this class warfare shit....

    "The "upper class," as defined by the study, were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to increase their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work, researchers reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

    my made up response to the ridiculous points...

    1. because they have more cars per capita

    2. because they don't want their kids teeth to rot since they pay their own dental expenses

    3. because by nature the successful group has some people who cheat... whereas as many do not even participate.

    4. which would mean support their colleague when liberals ask a hypothetical about someone saying something negative about a slacker who happens to be some type of minority.






     
    #54     Feb 28, 2012
  5. Stok

    Stok

    Ah Lawd! Even liberal CNN confirming its a hoax.

    Go grab your tent and join the slackers at OWS.
     
    #55     Feb 28, 2012



  6. Yes, Lord Simpleton.
     
    #56     Feb 28, 2012
  7. rew

    rew

    I've noticed that the left will believe any internet hoax that supports their point of view, and the right will believe any internet hoax that supports <i>their</i> point of view.
     
    #57     Feb 28, 2012
  8. TD80

    TD80

    Just replace the directions with Bulls and Bears and voila you have a tidbit worth the read through this thread.


     
    #58     Feb 29, 2012