Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Mar 13;109(11):4086-91.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1118373109. Epub 2012 Feb 27.

Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior

Paul K Piff  1 , Daniel M Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Dacher Keltner
Affiliations

Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior

Paul K Piff et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Seven studies using experimental and naturalistic methods reveal that upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals. In studies 1 and 2, upper-class individuals were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to lower-class individuals. In follow-up laboratory studies, upper-class individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies (study 3), take valued goods from others (study 4), lie in a negotiation (study 5), cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize (study 6), and endorse unethical behavior at work (study 7) than were lower-class individuals. Mediator and moderator data demonstrated that upper-class individuals' unethical tendencies are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Percentage of cars that cut off (i) other vehicles at the four-way intersection (from study 1) (A) or (ii) the pedestrian at the crosswalk (from study 2) (B), as a function of vehicle status (1 = lowest status, 5 = highest status).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
The relationship between social class and propensity for unethical behavior, moderated by the greed-is-good prime (from study 7).
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Aerial view of four-way intersection (from study 1). White arrows depict highways used by coders to code driver behavior at the intersection (image courtesy of © 2011 Google Maps).
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Photo series depicting crosswalk from study 2 with confederate posing as a pedestrian approaching (Top) and standing at crosswalk (Middle) as target vehicle fails to yield (Bottom).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Gino F, Pierce L. The abundance effect: Unethical behavior in the presence of wealth. Organ Behav Hum Dec. 2009;109:142–155.
    1. Adler NE, Epel ES, Castellazzo G, Ickovics JR. Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy white women. Health Psychol. 2000;19:586–592. - PubMed
    1. Kraus MW, Piff PK, Keltner D. Social class as culture: The convergence of resources and rank in the social realm. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2011;20:246–250.
    1. Kraus MW, Piff PK, Keltner D. Social class, sense of control, and social explanation. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2009;97:992–1004. - PubMed
    1. Kraus MW, Côté S, Keltner D. Social class, contextualism, and empathic accuracy. Psychol Sci. 2010;21:1716–1723. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources