Paul Piff designed an experiment to study the behavior of strangers who were meeting for the first time. During these meetings, volunteers who had described themselves as wealthier did not seem interested in getting to know the other person. People who had identified themselves as not wealthy were more likely to listen to and look at the stranger. They laughed more. They seemed to enjoy the get-together.
Working with other Berkeley researchers, Paul Piff designed more than thirty experiments to study how wealth and social position affect behavior. One experiment studied the actions of drivers on a busy street.
The researchers found that people driving pricey cars were less likely to stop for people trying to walk across the street. These drivers ignored traffic laws more often than drivers of older or less costly cars. Mr. Piff says this field of social science helps in understanding the causes of corruption among the powerful.
“It’s not just our work, but that of others that finds it is the more powerful individuals in society, the more privileged, the wealthier individuals in society that are more likely to break the rules.”
He says the research suggests that for many people power and money can have a corrupting influence on social behavior. He is concerned that as wealth inequality increases in society, there is a strong pressure for people who care about fairness and equality to violate their own rules of good behavior.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25