Social Class as Culture

POSTED BY: Fremdfirma
UPDATED: Friday, August 19, 2011 00:54
VIEWED: 3534
PAGE 1 of 4

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE

FREMDFIRMA

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 8:28 PM

Ha, Scientific Proof, rich people are dicks.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110808152413.htm

Quote:
ScienceDaily (Aug. 9, 2011) — Social class is more than just how much money you have. It's also the clothes you wear, the music you like, the school you go to -- and has a strong influence on how you interact with others, according to the authors of a new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. People from lower classes have fundamentally different ways of thinking about the world than people in upper classes -- a fact that should figure into debates on public policy, according to the authors.

"Americans, although this is shifting a bit, kind of think class is irrelevant," says Dacher Keltner of the University of California-Berkeley, who cowrote the article with Michael W. Kraus of UC-San Francisco and Paul K. Piff of UC-Berkeley. "I think our studies are saying the opposite: This is a profound part of who we are."

People who come from a lower-class background have to depend more on other people. "If you don't have resources and education, you really adapt to the environment, which is more threatening, by turning to other people," Keltner says. "People who grow up in lower-class neighborhoods, as I did, will say,' There's always someone there who will take you somewhere, or watch your kid. You've just got to lean on people.'"

Wealthier people don't have to rely on each other as much. This causes differences that show up in psychological studies. People from lower-class backgrounds are better at reading other people's emotions. They're more likely to act altruistically. "They give more and help more. If someone's in need, they'll respond," Keltner says. When poor people see someone else suffering, they have a physiological response that is missing in people with more resources. "What I think is really interesting about that is, it kind of shows there's all this strength to the lower class identity: greater empathy, more altruism, and finer attunement to other people," he says. Of course, there are also costs to being lower-class. Health studies have found that lower-class people have more anxiety and depression and are less physically healthy.

Upper-class people are different, Keltner says. "What wealth and education and prestige and a higher station in life gives you is the freedom to focus on the self." In psychology experiments, wealthier people don't read other people's emotions as well. They hoard resources and are less generous than they could be.

One implication of this, Keltner says, is that's unreasonable to structure a society on the hope that rich people will help those less fortunate. "One clear policy implication is, the idea of nobless oblige or trickle-down economics, certain versions of it, is bull," Keltner says. "Our data say you cannot rely on the wealthy to give back. The 'thousand points of light' -- this rise of compassion in the wealthy to fix all the problems of society -- is improbable, psychologically."

The ability to rise in class is the great promise of the American Dream. But studies have found that, as people rise in the classes, they become less empathetic. Studies have also found that as people rise in wealth, they become happier -- but not as much as you'd expect. "I think one of the reasons why is the human psyche stops feeling the need to connect and be closer to others, and we know that's one of the greatest sources of happiness science can study," Keltner says.

The article is entitled, "Social Class as Culture: The Convergence of Resources and Rank in the Social Realm."

FOR SCIENCE!

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 8:48 PM

My parents have tried to make me a carbon copy of them... it bugs me that they're so judgmental, and they have no sense of charity.

The article regrettably is probably right, though I suspect the day-to-day struggles of the lower class are more like humans in the wild than the selfishness of the upper classes.

SKYDIVELIFE

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 8:50 PM

So if I win the lottery, I automatically become a dick?

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 8:58 PM

I'd assume that upbringing in some particular class has more a role to play than a sudden gain or loss in wealth.

But for some people, yes, that does happen. Though they probably already had some seed of jerkhood in them to begin with.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 9:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SkyDiveLife:
So if I win the lottery, I automatically become a dick?

That would be a scientfic fact.

AURAPTOR

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 9:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SkyDiveLife:
So if I win the lottery, I automatically become a dick?

No. Apparently, hard work and prudent spending of your own money does that.

If you win LIFE'S lottery, you're evil, but if you just win THE lottery, you're entitled to more and more stuff.

Quote:
$2M Michigan lottery winner defends use of food stamps

Ron French, Detroit News staff writer
A Michigan man who won $2 million in a state lottery game continues to collect food stamps 11 months after striking it rich.

And there's nothing the state can do about it, at least for now.

Leroy Fick, 59, of Auburn won $2 million in the state lottery TV show "Make Me Rich!" last June. But the state's Department of Human Services determined he was still eligible for food stamps, Fick's attorney, John Wilson of Midland, said Tuesday.

Eligibility for food stamps is based on gross income and follows federal guidelines; lottery winnings are considered liquid assets and don't count as income. As long as Fick's gross income stays below the eligibility requirement for food stamps, he can receive them, even if he has a million dollars in the bank.
Food stamps are paid for through tax dollars and are meant to help support low-income families.
" If you're going to try to make me feel bad, you're not going to do it," Fick told WNEM-TV in Saginaw on Monday.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/detriot/2m-michigan-lottery-winner-defends
-food-stamps-172712202.html

Then there's this lovely saint....

Quote:

"Miss Marshall, who has never worked, rakes in almost £29,000 [£ is roughly $1.6] a year from benefits - and last year spent £4,500 to go from a 34A to a 34DD.

She explained: 'I have wanted a boob job since I was a teen. But it wasn't until I had five children that I could afford it - with all the extra benefits I get. Now I hope to have liposuction, a tummy tuck and regular Botox.

'I thought having children would make my boobs bigger, but that never happened so I decided to do something about them.

'I saved money from my benefits for four months to cover half the cost and put the rest on a credit card, which I pay back with my benefits.

'I know most people will think it is wrong I am spending taxpayers' money on my looks. But I deserve it because I am a good mum. Having children has taken its toll on my body. All mums should be able to have cosmetic surgery."
.... 'But I don't think me or my children should miss out on nice things just because I have never worked.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1318028/As-families-face-ben
efits-cuts-Kelly-Marshall-spent-4-500-BOOB-JOB.html

That's right, love. Screw having to work for anything. You wants it, why.. go out and gets it.

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

KWICKO

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 11:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SkyDiveLife:
So if I win the lottery, I automatically become a dick?

You won?

KWICKO

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 11:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:

Quote:
$2M Michigan lottery winner defends use of food stamps

Ron French, Detroit News staff writer
A Michigan man who won $2 million in a state lottery game continues to collect food stamps 11 months after striking it rich.

And there's nothing the state can do about it, at least for now.

Leroy Fick, 59, of Auburn won $2 million in the state lottery TV show "Make Me Rich!" last June. But the state's Department of Human Services determined he was still eligible for food stamps, Fick's attorney, John Wilson of Midland, said Tuesday.

Eligibility for food stamps is based on gross income and follows federal guidelines; lottery winnings are considered liquid assets and don't count as income. As long as Fick's gross income stays below the eligibility requirement for food stamps, he can receive them, even if he has a million dollars in the bank.
Food stamps are paid for through tax dollars and are meant to help support low-income families.
" If you're going to try to make me feel bad, you're not going to do it," Fick told WNEM-TV in Saginaw on Monday.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/detriot/2m-michigan-lottery-winner-defends
-food-stamps-172712202.html

What's funny is that you've defended Michele Bachmann and her family for doing pretty much the exact same thing.

DREAMTROVE

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 11:55 PM

it's not that the richare dicks, but that they think different, andwe need some of our own people in order to get a realistic discussion that encompasses a full spectrum of humanity.

Also, i'm getting gorram sick of the partisanship, does every thread have to turn into a slugfest? Both parties are parties of the rich. So are all the media figures. Man of the people john stewart is the brother of the head of the NYSE.

It's not just rich people, it's a handful of ruling families from a handful of communities.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

FREMDFIRMA

Wednesday, August 17, 2011 2:33 AM

Byte: free range people ? I can sorta see it like that, versus the ivory tower crowd.

DT: The word you are looking for, is Oligarchy.

-F

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE