Members in the Media
From: BBC News Magazine

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?

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.

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

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