Line Them Up and Shoot!

I recently came across an interesting article on Huffington Post. A series of behavioral studies of upper class individuals revealed some interesting facts about how the rich behave. According to the findings:

Seven studies using experimental and naturalistic methods reveal that upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals. In studies 1 and 2, upper-class individuals were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to lower-class individuals. In follow-up laboratory studies, upper-class individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies (study 3), take valued goods from others (study 4), lie in a negotiation (study 5), cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize (study 6), and endorse unethical behavior at work (study 7) than were lower-class individuals. Mediator and moderator data demonstrated that upper-class individuals' unethical tendencies are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.

There you have it. The rich aren't rich because they are smarter, have more talent or work harder than everybody else. They got rich by acting like scumbags. These assholes are complaining about having to pay taxes. They are lucky we don't stand up against the wall and shoot them!

The full title of the article is

Higher social class predicts increased
unethical behavior
Paul K. Piffa,1, Daniel M. Stancatoa, Stéphane Côtéb, Rodolfo Mendoza-Dentona, and Dacher Keltnera
aDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and bRotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON,
Canada M5S 3E6
Edited* by Richard E. Nisbett, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and approved January 26, 2012 (received for review November 8, 2011)

Published in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences.