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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."

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

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

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$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

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"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

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

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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$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

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Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Also, i'm getting gorram sick of the partisanship, does every thread have to turn into a slugfest?

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Originally posted by RionaEire:
That's an interesting study and makes some sense. I'm very communalistic, bery pro being with one's family and doing for each other.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Fremdfirma wrote:



So I took him home somewhere up on Wayne Road, and even volunteered to stop at a check cashing place and wait for him so he'd have something more than useless paper in his hand when he got there - guy tried to throw me a couple bucks for gas but I waved him off, told him "I been where you are, man, you need that more than I do."
The expression on his face as I drove away was worth every ounce of time and effort, I do stuff not only as a spit in the eye to a system turned rabid, but also as a quasi-religious gesture, in order to restore other peoples faith in humanity before they succumb to the lure of that dog-eat-dog myth which does our humanity so much harm, and maybe, just maybe a little bit to prove to the universe that not EVERYONE is an asshole, a great big digitus impudicus to the very gods themselves.

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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.

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and he is unlikely to be able to tell you the color of her hair

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Originally posted by Niki2:

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I think the main thing about being rich is, it removes a lot of inhibitors from human behavior

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I agree with that, too, Anthony, but I think it goes back to that "they think differently" thing. If raised among the wealthy, I think they BELIEVE they hvae the right to do as they please...how many have we seen get in trouble with the law for doing things others would fear getting in trouble with the law for? I think that goes to both; they're RAISED to think they don't need inhibitions as much as others do. So for me that combines the two and is a "chicken or the egg" problem; does being wealthy decrease inhibitions, or does one learn one doesn't need inhibitions because one grew up thinking differently?

And I, too, would like to catch up, as wel as being tickled pink to see you back.


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
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

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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Anthony! Dang, it seems like it's been a long time. What've you been up to?

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Originally posted by RionaEire:
Anthony's theory makes sense, rich people don't have to maintain relationships since they can just go get new friends or employees if they mess up with the old ones, whereas most of humanity will have the same coworkers, the same neighbors, for a long time and we have to make it work. I too think that some of this depends more on how you were raised than how much money you have now.

Quicko, I know that, and I won't deny that aspects of communism, on paper, do appeal to me on some level. But in real life it doesn't work like it looks on paper, so I'm not interested, at least not on a large scale, like for something beyond a little village. It might work, at least for a time, in a little village, but not a county, state or country because humanity is greedy and lazy.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:

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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Anthony! Dang, it seems like it's been a long time. What've you been up to?

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Hello,

Nothing interesting, I assure you. Just plodding along and getting along.

But it's nice to see all the old faces.

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