Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

retractionwatch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 81 posts

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#41

Post by jjawssd »

maxxxxx wrote: post #25
webkike wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's we? Not everyone in the western world is ignorant of their actions externalities

But you have to ignore them. When I look at my lifestyle and its resource consumption it simply is not possible to bring the whole world population to that level. I am aware of that but I still drive my car, fly on vacations and consume a lot of other stuff. I also buy shirts at Walmart although I know that they were probably produced by 12 year old in a sweatshop in Bangladesh.

The 12 year old in a sweatshop in Bangladesh might be supporting a family and may otherwise have to resort to a lower income, starvation, or death without the opportunity Walmart offers.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#42

Post by hwillis »

trapperkeeper74 wrote: post #17

People often conflate nebulous “evil” with more specific rational self-interest, good investments and cheating/underpaying/stealing from people. There are a lot of middling rich people whom do underpay people because it works and don’t care about long-term views of themselves or of the relationship... this can sabotage greater opportunities later on or current income streams now (it’s a small world and a hyperconnect…

> Wealth is a spectrum, as are integrity and personality. How is squishy “science” going to “measure” take those nuances or mentally-compartmentalized/hidden wealth transfer into account?

By measuring on a spectrum of wealth and integrity, and choosing a sample size so as to to ameliorate personality to p < .05. They have graphs of socioeconomic class vs. unethical behavior. A few studies also included priming the subjects to think in "greed is good" ways and measure the impact.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#43

Post by flachsechs »

_ptgt wrote: post #19
esmi wrote: post #12

I was super interested to read how they defined "rich". Is it just networth greater than X? Is someone who saves diligently for 50 years to get X also rich in their definition? Sadly those details appear to be behind a paywall and it seems what they really wanted to determine was the relationship between greedy attitudes and social economic status although their summary does use the word rich plenty, again, without d…

Equally important is how you define "unethical." I'd imagine people in higher socioeconomic levels are more likely to lie in a negotiation or ignore traffic laws (traffic penalties fines are regressive in the sense they are fixed, skill in negotiating is probably correlated with skill in lying), but less likely to commit violent crimes or engage in drug abuse.

> less likely ... to engage in drug abuse.

i really doubt this.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#44

Post by jstanley »

flachsechs wrote: post #43
_ptgt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equally important is how you define "unethical." I'd imagine people in higher socioeconomic levels are more likely to lie in a negotiation or ignore traffic laws (traffic penalties fines are regressive in the sense they are fixed, skill in negotiating is probably correlated with skill in lying), but less likely to commit violent crimes or engage in drug abuse.

> less likely ... to engage in drug abuse. i really doubt this.

Less likely to get caught engaging in drug abuse, maybe

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#45

Post by maxxxxx »

jjawssd wrote: post #41
maxxxxx wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you have to ignore them. When I look at my lifestyle and its resource consumption it simply is not possible to bring the whole world population to that level. I am aware of that but I still drive my car, fly on vacations and consume a lot of other stuff. I also buy shirts at Walmart although I know that they were probably produced by 12 year old in a sweatshop in Bangladesh.

The 12 year old in a sweatshop in Bangladesh might be supporting a family and may otherwise have to resort to a lower income, starvation, or death without the opportunity Walmart offers.

That's no excuse to make them work in the conditions they have to work. We should be willing to pay more. I know that I am a hypocrite.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#47

Post by grasshopperpurp »

allendoerfer wrote: post #26
testvox wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are being a team player because that's what's needed for you to succeed personally then isn't being a team player the selfish strategy?

Taken to the extreme: If you do good to feel good, you are selfish. But I don't think it matters to the outside. Let's judge the whole person and not some Freudian ego of him.

I agree with this as a standard for judging others, which is what your post addresses, so I have no disagreement with it.

For your self, though, if you are doing good only to feed your ego, the appetite of your ego is still the driving force, so your morality will be subject to the whims of your ego, which means that you're a fair-weather do-gooder - sure to do bad when your ego demands it.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#48

Post by randyrand »

Is this even a question?

Having spent my teenage years in what would otherwise be called a ghetto and now living in a wealthier suburb, poor neighborhoods have way more selfish assholes. I'm very glad I got out of there.

I think being an asshole hurts you more than is helps you as you get richer.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#49

Post by noja »

randyrand wrote: post #48

Is this even a question? Having spent my teenage years in what would otherwise be called a ghetto and now living in a wealthier suburb, poor neighborhoods have way more selfish assholes. I'm very glad I got out of there. I think being an asshole hurts you more than is helps you as you get richer.

In one case you were looking at the world from the perspective of a poor boy, in the other from a rich earner.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#50

Post by sctb »

mirrormind wrote: post #37

People who do such research are a waste of money in my opinion and must be fired. Do something useful. What is the use of this? Rich people go grab pussies, some get rid of poverty. They are mean, they are nice.. they are across the spectrum

Please don't post like this on Hacker News. It amounts to unsubstantive inflammation and we're shooting for something different here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Post reply on HN