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Frant
King's Bounty
Posts: 24636
Location: Your Mom
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 Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 13:11 Post subject: The rich have less empathy than the rest |
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44084236/ns/health-behavior/t/rich-are-different-not-good-way-studies-suggest/?fb_ref=.TkTv7jOiDlW.like&fb_source=profile_multiline
| Quote: | The rich are different — and not in a good way, studies suggest
The 'Haves' show less empathy than 'Have-nots'
Psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different, and not in a good way: Their life experience makes them less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish.
In fact, he says, the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest."
“We have now done 12 separate studies measuring empathy in every way imaginable, social behavior in every way, and some work on compassion and it’s the same story,” he said. “Lower class people just show more empathy, more prosocial behavior, more compassion, no matter how you look at it.”
In an academic version of a Depression-era Frank Capra movie, Keltner and co-authors of an article called “Social Class as Culture: The Convergence of Resources and Rank in the Social Realm,” published this week in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, argue that “upper-class rank perceptions trigger a focus away from the context toward the self….”
In other words, rich people are more likely to think about themselves. “They think that economic success and political outcomes, and personal outcomes, have to do with individual behavior, a good work ethic,” said Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it.
“I will quote from the Tea Party hero Ayn Rand: “‘It is the morality of altruism that men have to reject,’” he said.
Whether or not Keltner is right, there certainly is a “let them cake” vibe in the air. Last week The New York Times reported on booming sales of luxury goods, with stores keeping waiting lists for $9,000 coats and the former chairman of Saks saying, “If a designer shoe goes up from $800 to $860, who notices?”
According to Gallup, Americans earning more than $90,000 per year continued to increase their consumer spending in July while middle- and lower-income Americans remained stalled, even as the upper classes argue that they can’t pay any more taxes. Meanwhile, the gap between the wealthiest and the rest of us continues to grow wider, with over 80 percent of the nation’s financial wealth controlled by about 20 percent of the people.
Unlike the rich, lower class people have to depend on others for survival, Keltner argued. So they learn “prosocial behaviors.” They read people better, empathize more with others, and they give more to those in need.
That’s the moral of Capra movies like “You Can’t Take It With You,” in which a plutocrat comes to learn the value of community and family. But Keltner, author of the book “Born To Be Good: The Science of A Meaningful Life,” doesn’t rely on sentiment to make his case.
He points to his own research and that of others. For example, lower class subjects are better at deciphering the emotions of people in photographs than are rich people.
In video recordings of conversations, rich people are more likely to appear distracted, checking cell phones, doodling, avoiding eye contact, while low-income people make eye contact and nod their heads more frequently signaling engagement.
In one test, for example, Keltner and other colleagues had 115 people play the “dictator game,” a standard trial of economic behavior. “Dictators” were paired with an unseen partner, given ten “points” that represented money, and told they could share as many or as few of the points with the partner as they desired. Lower-class participants gave more even after controlling for gender, age or ethnicity.
Keltner has also studied vagus nerve activation. The vagus nerve helps the brain record and respond to emotional inputs. When subjects are exposed to pictures of starving children, for example, their vagus nerve typically becomes more active as measured by electrodes on their chests and a sensor band around their waists. In recent tests, yet to be published, Keltner has found that those from lower-class backgrounds have more intense activation. |
What else is new?
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
"The sky was the color of a TV tuned to a dead station" - Neuromancer
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Rofl_Mao
Posts: 3187
Location: Nederland
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 14:00 Post subject: |
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I'm curious what Chiv will say about this. "A starving African baby is not worth $100M".
| Lopin18 wrote: | I think you played too much Fallout 3, Pedo Perk acquired.  |
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couleur
[Moderator] Janitor
Posts: 14327
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 16:26 Post subject: |
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Saved for future reference. Thanks Frant.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."
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helvete
Posts: 2727
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 17:19 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 17:24 Post subject: |
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isnt empathy stupid the way?
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helvete
Posts: 2727
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 17:29 Post subject: |
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isnt not good speak stupid?
REPOST
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 17:37 Post subject: |
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| helvete wrote: | | isnt not good speak stupid? |
question was about empathy being good or bad.
is your opinion empathy a good or bad thing?
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helvete
Posts: 2727
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 18:00 Post subject: |
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Yes, in my opinion trolling is bad.
REPOST
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LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73196
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 20:42 Post subject: |
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linku is Ronhrin? 
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garus
VIP Member
Posts: 34200
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 20:59 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:51; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 21:10 Post subject: |
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That's the whole purpose of Capitalism, to milk dry poor and average population. That's a very clever but diseased system.
Also why would i follow laws and framework and pay taxes, when i own my home? I take all the necessary steps to protect my home, be it by force or reasoning.
I suck dicks for free.
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garus
VIP Member
Posts: 34200
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| Posted: Fri, 12th Aug 2011 21:20 Post subject: |
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