Does Money Make You Mean?
If the rich would share their wealth with the poor,/inequality might be solved.// But this does not seem to be happening.// Paul Piff,/an American social psychologist,/wanted to find out why.//
　　Do rich people think and act differently from poor people?// Paul Piff has explored this question/in dozens of experiments.// His findings suggest/that as people’s wealth increases,/so do their feelings of entitlement and their self-interest,/but their empathy and compassion decrease.// Piff worries/that as economic inequality increases,/the idea that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and prosper/will suffer.//
A Rigged Game//
　　In one interesting experiment,/people played a board game/in which two players compete/in buying and selling land, buildings, and houses.// The goal is to see/who ends up with the most money and property.// Each player begins with the same amount of money/(of course,/it is play money)/and each must follow the same rules.//
　　Piff decided to change the game.// He wanted to see/what would happen if the game were rigged/so that one player got twice as much money as the other player/and the rules also worked in favor of the “rich” player.// More than 100 pairs of strangers/were asked to be either a “rich” player or a “poor” player/in a rigged game.// Through hidden cameras,/Piff watched what happened.//
　　As the game went on,/dramatic differences appeared between the two players.// The rich players/began to show signs of power and celebration.// They became loud/and slapped their pieces down on the board.// They took more than their share of the pretzels/which the researchers had provided.// The rich players became more boastful.// They were less and less sensitive/to the plight of the poor players.// In some cases,/they were actually rude.//
　　According to Piff,/the rigged game can be used/as a metaphor for understanding a society/in which a few people have a lot more wealth and status/than the rest of the people.//
　　In dozens of studies involving thousands of participants,/Piff is finding/that as people get richer,/they lose their sense of compassion/and they feel an increased sense of entitlement.// Wealthier individuals are actually more likely to feel/that greed is good/and that the pursuit of self-interest is good and moral.//