DO THE POOR CHEAT MORE?

By Nigel Tomes

Do the poor cheat more? Are the poor driven by their desperate circumstances to lie, cheat & steal more than their better-off neighbors? Are wealthy people more ethical, more moral? Are the rich more altruistic, more likely to care for others? Are higher socio-economic status people less dominated by self-interest? Specific examples might suggest the answer is “yes.” Multi-millionaires like Warren Buffett & Bill Gates donate huge amounts to charities & humanitarian projects. Yet counter-examples abound. In 2009, Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in US prison and ordered to repay $170 billion in restitution to the victims of his Ponzi scheme. So are the rich or the poor more likely to lie, cheat and steal? The answer has future implications. If high income people are more honest, ethical & charitable then, with economic growth, society will get better; virtue will increase. But the converse is true; if the rich are more likely to lie, cheat & steal, then society will get worse; vice will increase and virtue decrease as incomes rise.

Psychologists’ Tests

New research by psychologists at UC Berkeley and U of T’s Rotman School of Management addresses these issues. Tests were conducted in various life-situations. One test involved throwing dice. Participants were told higher scores raised their chance to win $50 cash. Yet researchers rigged the experiment so every participant rolled the same (low) numbers. Anyone self-reporting a total above 12 was lying. Researchers tracked who lied in their self-reported results. The result? People in a high socio-economic class cheated more often; wealthier individuals were more likely to lie. The findings are ironic. The $50 prize is trivial to a rich person making $250,000 p.a. In contrast, for a poor person, $50 is significant. Yet, in this test, the poor displayed more ethical behavior; they were less likely to lie to get the prize.a

“The wealthy are more likely to cheat, lie, & break the law.”

From their tests the psychologists concluded that the “upper class,” are more likely engage in unethical and/or selfish behaviour. They found the rich had a greater propensity “to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to increase their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work.” This is a damning indictment of the rich. This, the psychologists believe, arises because “the pursuit of self-interest is a fundamental motive among society’s elite…[so] greater wealth & status can promote wrong-doing.” “It’s not that the rich are innately bad,” said a researcher, “but as you rise in the ranks [of society] …you become more self-focused.” Michigan business professor, Erik Gordon, explains, “Greed has been on the upswing for 20 years. Wealth or power…means you are enabled to ignore other people and might think that rules that apply to other people don’t apply to you.”

The Poor Give a Greater Share

The view that the rich are more self-centered and less generous is supported by real-world data. Low-income Americans give proportionally more of their incomes to charity than high-income Americans. A 2001 study of charity found US households earning under $25,000 p.a. gave 4.2% of their incomes to charity; those earning over $75,000 gave only 2.7%. The poor give a greater share of their income to others; the rich give a smaller share.

It’s Time Christians let their Light shine

These psychologists’ research findings imply a bleak future for ethical behavior. They found that “The wealthy are more likely to cheat, lie, and break the law.” This suggests that, as economic growth swells the ranks of the rich, ethical behavior will decline, cheating, lying, and law-breaking will rise. People will be more self-centered and contribute a smaller share to meet the needs of the poor. This bleak prognosis of increasing greed and self-absorption provides a dark black-ground against which the Christian virtues of loving one’s neighbor and caring for the poor can be high-lighted. It’s time born-again believers let their lights shine in a world of growing greed and self-interest.

References:

Elizabeth Lopatto, “Wealthy More Likely to Lie, Cheat: Researchers” Bloomberg News, Feb 27, 2012

Martin Mittelstaedt, “Cheat, lie, break the law? Chances are, you’re rich,” Globe & Mail, Mon., Feb. 27, 2012

Judith Warner, “The Charitable-Giving Divide,” New York Times, Aug. 20, 2010