Does money make you mean?

BBC News Magazine:

The road along the seafront in Los Angeles is lined with palm trees – skateboarders and dog-walkers stroll along, heading for the beach. And social psychologist Prof Paul Piff is spending the afternoon going back and forth over a pedestrian crossing.

Thanks to the high number of wealthy locals, there is no shortage of upmarket vehicles gliding past. The four-wheel drives, sleek sports cars and nifty hybrids are an essential part of his demonstration.

He’s here to illustrate one of his more provocative experiments – who is more likely to stop for pedestrians, the rich or the poor?

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Research by Prof Kathleen Vohs at Minnesota University might help to explain Piff’s findings though. She spent her time “accidentally” dropping a bundle of little yellow pencils to see whether people would help pick them up.

First, though, she primed half of them with thoughts of money, either giving them money-related sentences to unscramble or banknotes to count.

Money-primed participants proved to be less helpful in gathering up the pencils. And in a similar study they were also less generous when invited to donate to charity.

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Researchers in Hong Kong have taken this a step further. Prof Zhansheng Chen and Prof Yuwei Jiang found money-primed subjects, when given a series of ethical dilemmas, were more likely to accept moral transgressions such as cheating in exams or lying on a CV.

Read the whole story: BBC News Magazine