The rich really are different

Do the wealthy lie, cheat, and steal more than others? The answer appears to be yes, in certain circumstances.

The research supporting this conclusion was conducted not by Occupy Wall Street, but at the University of California, Berkeley, where social psychologist Paul Piff led a team that devised a series of experiments to assess the effect of wealth on ethical behavior. Their paper, published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests the rich are more likely to cut corners when confronted with a number of ethical challenges.

In the initial phase of the study, students watched traffic at a four-way intersection. They observed that people driving expensive cars were twice as likely to illegally cut off other drivers, and only half as likely to stop for pedestrians.

Most of us won't be surprised to learn that drivers of fancy cars are menaces. But what would that Maserati-driving hotshot do if a convenience store clerk gave him more change than he was due? Surprisingly, the study found that the well-off were more likely to pocket the change than poorer respondents, who generally said they would return it.

In a third trial involving an online game, higher-income individuals lied more frequently to inflate their scores and win a $50 prize.

The study also tested people's willingness to accept better grades than they had earned, to lie to earn a larger bonus at work, and even to pilfer candy from children. In every case, the wealthier they were, the more likely they were to behave badly.

So are the rich really less ethical than others? Not necessarily, according to Piff. But they do have a greater sense of personal entitlement.

If you have money, you come to see it as your due. The affluent view wealth as a virtue, and their own wealth as proof of their hard work and innate worth. They are rich because, in their minds at least, they deserve it.

And because their self-worth tends to be tied to their ability to acquire wealth, the rich often feel driven to continue to do so, even long after their most lavish material desires are fulfilled. For the rich, money is not just a means to purchase things, but a measure of status.

"It's not that the rich are innately bad," Piff said. "But as you rise in the ranks - whether as a person or a nonhuman primate - you become more self-focused."

And also cut off from others and the standards of the community at large, the study concluded. Unlike the poor, who have to rely on friends, family, and neighbors to get through tough times, wealth buys a certain independence from others. The rich don't have to make the same compromises and accommodations as others do. They are accustomed to getting their own way - and to getting away with things. Witness the bafflement and outrage on Wall Street when it was suggested that some of its big wheels should be held accountable for their misdeeds before the 2008 collapse.

Living in a bubble of extreme wealth also fosters what has been called a "compassion deficit." As one gets richer, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify with those in need. Mitt Romney's statement that he was not worried about the very poor because they are protected by a social safety net is a case in point. As the income gap widens, many are losing the ability even to imagine life on the other side of the divide.

This may account for the fact that the poor are more charitable than the rich. One can see this every day on the streets of America's cities, where those lower on the socio-economic totem pole give more frequently to the homeless and street performers. Upper-income Americans contribute only 2.7 percent of their income to charity, while those in the lower brackets give 4.2 percent. Folks who are struggling to make ends meet have a natural empathy for those in a similar position.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has drawn attention to economic inequality in America. But the disparity in wealth may reflect an even more fundamental gap in our minds and hearts. The Berkeley research suggests that the distance between the rich and the poor is more than economic; it is psychological, too. Rich and poor Americans are inhabiting different worlds, with different sympathies, values, and ethical sensibilities, and the chasm between them is becoming increasingly difficult to bridge.