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In Play and On the Wires
In Play and On the Wires
In Play and On the Wires
Surprise: Studies Show Rich People are more Unethical than Poor People
“The rich are different, wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald 88 years ago in his novel The Great Gatsby. Last week, a team of five researchers that conducted a set of seven psychological experiments confirmed Fitzgerald’s opinion, specifying that the rich behave more unethically and greedily than lower-class individuals.
The team—four Psychology professors from the University of California at Berkeley and a Business professor from the University of Toronto—conducted two “naturalistic” field studies to determine if the rich were more likely to break the law while driving, and five laboratory studies gauging upper-class attitudes and propensities toward unethical decision-making. In all seven studies, the rich subjects behaved more unethically and harbored positive opinions of greed that helped justify their selfishness.
In Studies 1 and 2, volunteers at a busy intersection observed whether those drivers who broke traffic laws by cutting off other vehicles or pedestrians were more likely to be driving expensive cars. Overall, 12.4% of drivers cut in front of other vehicles and 34.9% failed to yield to a pedestrian. But rich drivers broke the law at a far greater rate: they cut off other cars 29.6% of the time and failed to yield 46.2% of the time, while lower class drivers did so only 7.7% of the time and not at all, respectively.
Studies 3 and 4 attempted to measure the relationship between class and attitudes toward ethics. In Study 3, subjects read a set of eight scenarios involving unethical decisions that lead to profit, with upper class persons much more likely to engage in the wrongful conduct. In Study 4, the subjects were asked to take a jar of candies to some children in a nearby lab, and were told they could take some if they wanted. The rich subjects took more candy that would otherwise go to children than did the lower class subjects.
Studies 5 and 6 measured positive attitudes toward greed and the tendency to behave unethically. In Study 5, after completing a survey on their attitudes toward greed, subjects assumed the role of an employer negotiating with a job candidate and were told that the mock job would soon be eliminated. Reporting the chance they would tell the job candidate the truth about job stability, the rich subjects were far more likely to lie than the lower class ones. In Study 6, rich subjects were much more likely to cheat at a dice game by falsely inflating their scores. In both cases, the differences were explained by the fact that the rich viewed greed in a more positive light than did the lower class subjects….”
Comments »In Play and On the Wires
Israel’s Channel 10 News: Obama to Threaten Iran With Military Strike in June
“President Barack Obama says the United States could launch an attack on Iran as early as this June, Israeli media reports.
According to a report on Israel’s Channel 10 News that has since been picked up by the Times of Israel, Pres. Obama will use an upcoming meeting overseas to discuss a military strike on Iran. Pres. Obama is scheduled to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next month, and during the get-together the two leaders will reportedly work out the details for a possible assault.
Pres. Obama will tell Netanyahu that a “window of opportunity” for a military strike on Iran will open in June, Channel 10 claims.
Israel has long-urged the White House to use its military prowess to intervene in Iran’s rumored nuclear weapon procurement plan, demands which have by-and-large been rejected by the Obama administration. According to the latest reports, though, the United States might finally be willing to use its might to make a stand against Iran’s race for a nuke.
“I have conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time. And I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon, because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel, and it would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race,” Pres. Obama said during an interview on the television program 60 Minutes last year, but not before adding that he’ll continue to block “noise” from Netanyahu’s camp. “Now I feel an obligation, not pressure but obligation, to make sure that we’re in close consultation with the Israelis — on these issues. Because it affects them deeply. They’re one of our closest allies in the region. And we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence,” he said.
But five months after those remarks, Iran is still inclined to become a nuclear power. Only days earlier, The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu said the details of a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency suggested that that Iran had begun installing advanced centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment facility, sparking “very grave” concerns that Israel could be hit with a nuke.
World powers and Iran’s representatives sit at a table during talks on Iran’s nuclear programme in the Kazakh city of Almaty on February 26, 2013. (AFP Photo / Stanislav Filippov))
Right now, five members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany are holding talks with Iranian officials in Kazakhstan, with the goal of reaching a diplomatic answer to the nuclear crisis. However, domestic tensions within Iranian political elite do not make the prospect of a solution any more viable for now. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s second and final term in office is set to wrap up this June, and political fights within the country’s top contenders for the position has prompted possible presidents to take harsh stance on the issue and resist outside pressure….”
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