Piff, however, feels the advantages of affluence and higher social standing allow the rich to be more independent, self-focused and self-interested, which leads to increased narcissism and entitlement.
By contrast, the disadvantages associated with poverty and lower social class encourage interdependence and other-focus, which in turn enhance egalitarianism and decrease self-importance, he says. The poor have much less control individually over their own lives and tend to live in environments that are more threatening.
“They turn to community, as opposed to being focused on themselves. They are really attuned and sensitive to the needs of others, because that’s so central to how they cope,” said Piff.
Those at the top can be taught to appreciate the plight of the less fortunate, Piff’s research found. By inducing egalitarian values in upper-class research subjects in the laboratory, Piff was able to decrease their narcissism to a level on par with lower-class study participants.
Piff’s previous studies found that richer people were more likely to take candy from children; luxury-car drivers were less likely to stop for pedestrians; and the wealthiest individuals were more likely to cheat in a game that offered the winner a $50 cash prize. According to Piff, the unscrupulous behavior seen in these studies was driven by greed. Across multiple studies, affluent subjects expressed the view that greed is good—even moral.
“The richer you are, the more likely you are to believe that self-interest is a moral good, that it’s a value worth striving for,” he said. “Because of that, in our earlier work, we find that richer people are more likely to behave unethically or cheat or lie.”