Groundbreaking scientific discovery: Rich people are unsympathetic jerks

Yes...the results are in. Sure to be a revelation to all worldwide..

Source

In a series of studies, more than 300 upper- and lower-class people were asked the interpret the emotions of people in photos and of strangers during mock job interviews.

In both cases, those with more education, money and self-defined social status weren’t nearly as adept at figuring out if a person was angry, happy, anxious or upset as their lower class colleagues.

Kraus says that's likely because people from lower-economic backgrounds may have to rely on others for help.

“You turn to people, it’s an adaptive strategy,” he says. “You develop this sort of heightened independence with other individuals as a way to deal with not having enough individual resources.”

Upper-class people, on the other hand, don’t need to ask for help that often.

“One of the negative side effects of that is that they’re less concerned and less perceptive of other people’s needs and wishes. They show a deficit in empathic accuracy.”

I guess next they will study to see if being punched in the nose is upsetting to some.

So...thoughts? Any wealthy people here wish to disagree with the study? (in your emotionless droning way)
Any basketcase emotional wreck non-rich want to agree?


Expanded source: Here

Incredibly accurate study. Now I would like to see a study with those same wealthy people in a situation X scenario to see how they fare.

After reading your post, and the attached article, sounds more like opinion, that an actual case study. Would be interesting to see the results though of such a test. Did I miss a link ?

Nevermind, I see it now~

Well I have to agree ...Rich people are TOTAL JERKS ...why I say that is because I notice they only care for themselfs just watch this video and see what rich people are doing to us.....Link To Video

So...should rich people be allowed to lead us then considering they basically are emotionally detatched from the common person in society?

He represents us, yet he has no clue how we are feeling about something...

I've also observed in my own activites that people who are wealthy are horrible at spending money. They usually spend 2 to 3 times more for something that is 3 or 4 times less than what could be obtained for less money. They take on projects "DIY" and then fail so miserably that it costs 2 or 3 times more to get it fixed than it would have cost to do it the right way in the first place. Then they want to argue that because they are wealthy that they somehow have greater knowledge because they have been able to amass greater material wealth. The true definition of "moran." (sic)

I have bee "trailer" poor my entire life and worked my way through college and graduate school with two or three low paying full time jobs. Even with the degrees I have, I have not been able to break the class barrier to achieve the same level of material comfort as lesser educated wealthier people. Mainly because I have been forced to work with rich idiots who couldn't do something right if it was done for them. Then I get the blame because I come from "the lower classes"...always the scapegoat.

Honestly, I really don't trust anyone who has $2,000 in the bank yet says they're broke. I never trust anyone who makes over $80,000/year individually or families making over $120,000/year combined income. I never trust anyone with a trust fund.

No. These people should not be allowed to make decisions that affect the rest of us. They are the ones who are driving our society right into the toilet on the backs of the poor.

I think the end result is a lack of empathy, but I think it is all rooted from the word Protective.

When one monkey finds a beautiful, secluded tree ripe with bananas, he would eat them all himself if it wouldn't give him a stomach ache. So he then realizes that he must share, and quietly tells his favorite monkeys about the undisclosed banana tree. Now you have a little troop of monkeys, who still have much more than they need, but due to their Protective instincts all other emotions are over-ridden.

The monkeys have grown so protective over their abundant banana tree, that even though perhaps they might like to share with other the other hungry monkeys, they will not, for fear of losing that comfort of never needing. However, once these monkeys become noticeably 'fattened' by this perfect banana tree, the other monkeys will notice and become envious.

So they then have to ration bananas out to the original troop, only now they are injecting those bananas with fluoride- Ah, I lost my point!

From reading the expanded source article linked, this difference seems to be more of an environmental difference then one related to income and social status-- just NBC trying to generate more social and class warfare.

If someone never has to work for anything, doesn't need to acquire help and can pay people to get stuff done instead of relying on assistance to do things, of course they will have a less developed empathetic accuracy then say a social worker, or someone on state assistance who constantly has to get by with the help of a community.

But say you have someone who is rich and spends all their time helping the community and working in shelters, etc.?

Noty to mention, where do you draw off the rich vs poor line? 50k yr? 100k? 200k? Or say someone who was low income and wins the lottery and suddenly has a 50million bank account after living for decades off 30k/yr? Do they suddenly lose their ability to empathise?

Not to mention, almost no scientific or empyrical information behind this article about any actual scientic study. Just seems kind of bogus

On the surface of it, this article seems pretty accurate, but in reality it varies, sometimes despite whatever boxes are checked on some survey. It's entirely possible for two children of the same family to have entirely different attitudes and empathic abilities. Too many variables which can effect someones personality.

Hi, rich non-fans !

Here is another "point of view" on the very rich:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Talking also about inbreeding. . .

Blue skies.

The psychological studies get good press in the medical pages and it's a good thing because if it did not, then that freeflow of information would be hindered and we'de have to investigate if it's a conspiracy or not!

If results from any neurological studies support the findings of this psychological one, then science would support common sense because we do know that as a general rule, it is true, by and large, the rich are a bunch of cold blooded jerks.

I would like to see results of studies that identify the bio-chemical make up and measured fluctuations caused by emotional stimuli. And if any such occurances result in permanent change in the brain.

I don't think this reduced empathy in wealthy people is about them having money. I think money equals power and that usually means power over others. I think the power emotion surge alters the brain chemistry, either like an off-switch that seperates the individual from connection to others or as a protective on switch that blots out everything else.

If such a compound were found and there is no widely published secondary reporting in msm medical pages, that would be a conspiracy!

I live in Palm Beach County Florida. We have tons and tons of rich arrogant pricks. One thing i noticed though is that the people who come from old money(born with a silver spoon in their mouth) are the biggest pricks. Where as a lot of self-made millionaires are a little more down to earth. Not all but a lot that i have met. Some of them still remember what they came from.

There's nothing groundbreaking about class warfare. I also don't think this is a 'scientific' study.
I worked for a man that runs an RV repair/rental service here in Reno. He's rich as hell. He's also one of the most giving and understanding people I've known in my entire life.

But I won't bore you with real life stories. Continue the class warfare folks....Continue until there are no rich people to sign your paychecks.

As far as this study goes it reminds me how people like to think that by disassociation they can also protect themselves from the reality which is simply unthinkable to them.

I have seen this in the Midwest during Bushes last stance on good old fashioned family values, I saw democrats turn to become republicans to save what they saw as the deterioration of a simpler way of life, one where technology and industry had a place for everyone even the little guy, a time when family farms and factories made this nation what it stands for, stood for once upon a time. Where all young women blossom into marriage before sex, and teen abortion was non existent, when a hard days work created a living and a lifestyle.

I have also seen how the very poor have become almost apathetic to their own by choosing the republican party as if becoming a republican could change their personal status financially.

It is fear based at best and unsympathetic at worst.

This report shows me nothing more than what i have observed personally and it is because people just do not want to flounder with the chickens when they can soar with the eagles and in fact to even give the chickens a thought makes them vulnerable to becoming a chicken and losing the ability to fly.

I have also known many extreme rich and they were as relaxed and compassionate as I could hope for. I would say based on that the people in this study were not infact very wealthy or secure but afraid and self absorbed with a higher dimension of survival level than the common poor person lives in or lives without.

I think they did that study in 1983 when they released TRADING PLACES