Take Two 'Normal' People, Add Money To Just One Of Them, And Watch What Happens Next

[Scuba]

http://www.upworthy.com/take-two-normal-people-add-money-to-just-one-of-them-and-watch-what-happens-next?g=2

Science can explain a lot of things that I've always wondered about (go, science!). In this case, it explains what I've known for a long time but been unable to quite understand: Why do some folks who have a lot more money than others seem to be less nice and more evil to everyone around them?

At 0:50, someone actually takes candy from babies. No, really. At 3:00, we start to see the science unfold before our eyes. Entire management courses could — and should — be taught with the bit starting at 4:40.

Hmmmm. Maybe money is the root of all evil.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. This was reported widely in the media?

News to me, so to speak. I've been busy lately, so it's possible that I missed this, but I question whether it was disseminated to the extent suggested by the reporter in the video.

[bettyellen]

5. I'd seen a few articles when it came out. In the context of what they normally do, I think it

probably did get them extraordinary attention.
But this was a really good report. Glad to see it getting a wider audience.

[mazzarro]

2. Not "Maybe money is the root of all evil"

It is the root of all evil both in terms of nations as well as individuals. Money or (resource ownership) skews the power perception of the owner - IMO.

[SharonAnn]

7. "Love of money is the root of all evil" is the correct quote, I believe. It's the LOVE part that's

the problem. Greed is bad, dontcha know.

[classof56]

10. Correct on both counts.

I'm reminded of a line from "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" where Molly is taken to task because she loves money, and she replies, "It's not the money I love. It's the not having any I hate."

Cheers!

[brewens]

3. You never know how it's going to go. One guy makes it big and is still as nice as

can be. Another guy is a complete asshole.

One boss I had was known as a slacker as a young beer guy. Then, even though he got in good with the boss/owner, he was always bitching about not making enough and wanting to find something else. Those guys were paid quite well too.

A few years later he lucks into being able to buy into the business. His brother had the money. The previous owner had cancer and had to sell part of the business to a man. In those days, the breweries could get away with refusing to work with a woman owner/manager. She couldn't just take over, even hiring a manager. She did maintain a 51% share of the company though.

When her new partner took over it was instant asshole! It was as if he did it all and owed no one anything. No raises, even though the previous boss had a policy of always matching what the competition paid. That from a guy who benefited for years from that policy. The guys could not work with him.

So guess what? The guys went union! He couldn't stop them! Talk about a guy that shit in his own messkit! At one time we had five beer distributors in town and his was the only one that was union. Who knows how much that cost him. Those guys would have never done that if they hadn't been forced to.

[PowerToThePeople]

4. This is good. I hope they keep doing research.

[snagglepuss]

6. K & R

[leftstreet]

8. I wish they'd also do an 'opposite' study

Take two people with economic security, take everything away from one, see what happens

They love to speculate that money makes us behave in certain ways, but never what scarcity might do to us


DURec all the same though

[Curmudgeoness]

11. You make a very good point.

To the people with security, all the poor are lazy bums and criminals. They do not differentiate between people who are desperate to feed their families working too many part time jobs and sociopaths----it seems that it is all the same.

I was impressed with how they found experiments to make the case that the abundance of money made people assholes. I wonder how they could find an experiment to show the opposite----but I have no doubt that they could. First would probably be to take the Monopoly game losers and look at them....did they bitch about how unfair the rules were that allowed the other person to have such an advantage?

[Luminous Animal]

16. He referenced 'opposite' studies that revealed rich people

became more compassionate when put into a poor persons situation.

[treestar]

9. That was quite interesting

And he said it didn't matter whether they were liberal or conservative.

[dogknob]

12. Live in San Francisco for 6 months. It makes no difference. n/t

Last edited Sat Aug 3, 2013, 02:28 PM - Edit history (1)

I lived there for several years. Pre- During- and Post- dot-com. The transformations I witnessed in so many people...

EDIT: 6-12 months is about how long it takes most people arriving in SF to learn all of the "liberal" variants of conservative talking points.

[CrispyQ]

13. That was really interesting.

I love the idea of using Monopoly with real world rules. Not everyone gets $200 when they pass Go. Not everyone gets two dice to roll. I'm surprised that rich folks sitting in the paupers chair, also changed. Thanks for sharing.

[Electric Monk]

14. k&r for science :)

[Electric Monk]

19. one more kick

[reusrename]

15. That was not at all what I expected.

I was thinking it would be more like this:

[Mojorabbit]

17. Would there be an evolutionary component to this? A reason for the behavior

hardwired? I hope they continue the studies.

[pipi_k]

18. I'm not going to

believe that premise (that money makes people mean) unless I see where the people they study were nicer before the money came along.

Maybe they were always insufferable assholes anyway but just started showing their true selves when the money came along because it also gave them a sense of power to complete the circuit of nastiness.


anyway, talk about mean people...my daughter's husband is a real jerk sometimes. When she's asked me what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas, etc., I've said to just get me a few lottery/scratch tickets. Don't get me something I'll never use, or that doesn't fit, nothing expensive, etc.

No...she can't do that, because her husband would be PISSED off if they gave someone a ticket that won a shitload of money. He, BTW, is always buying tickets, and every so often wins a hundred bucks...maybe once or twice a year, five hundred. So it's obvious to me he buys a lot of them.

If I gave my kids a winning ticket and they got lots of money, are you kidding me...I'd be happy for them!

Yeah. So imagine that. He'd be pissed if I won a million dollars even though I've told my daughter I would give some to her and her brother anyway.

Some people are assholes even without the money.

[KinMd]

20. I'd like to be rich just to be the exception to this study