Cal, Berkeley Research: "Money Makes People Stingy"

Research: Money Makes People Stingy

Author: Jessica Ruvinsky

Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2011

http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/research-money-makes-people-stingy

The more you have, the less you give. According to a 2002 Independent Sector survey, households earning more than $100,000 a year contributed only 2.7 percent of their income to charity, while those earning less than $25,000 gave a more generous 4.2 percent. New research shows that’s no accident. “The more money a person makes or has, the less generous, helpful, compassionate, and charitable he is toward other people,” says Paul Piff, a doctoral candidate in social and personality psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Piff started out by noticing that rich people are generally ruder. When he videotaped them in the lab as they got to know a stranger, people who had identified themselves as having more “would check their cell phones ... or doodle without establishing eye contact. Whereas the individuals who identified themselves as having less, were more engaged: They would establish eye contact, they’d laugh more, they’d nod,” Piff says. ... Read more