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Sam Boone
Carly Huegelmann
English 1101-FS040

Being Rich Can Lead to Selfishness

The upper class has always been known to be, stereotypically, snooty, arrogant,
egotistical and just plain stuck-up. But is that true? Stereotyping someone based on their
background or income is completely wrong, but, unfortunately, there is a correlation between the
two. Being wealthy does not always mean that you are egotistical and rude to others, but
statistically, the people of the upper class, and some of the upper middle class, seem to be more
prone to selfishness.
Wealthier people tend to be less generous, when being compared to people with a lower
income. During a study for pro-social behavior, or helping behavior, Paul Piff brought in people
from different economic backgrounds and gave them each ten dollars. Piff told the participants
that they could either keep the money for themselves, or they could share some of it with a
complete stranger. He found that people who made $25,000 and under per year donated 44
percent more of their money than people who made $150,000 to $200,000 per year (Piff).
Suggesting that wealth, even at a mild amount in comparison to multi-millionaires, lowers an
individuals charitableness. Wealth not only affects generosity negatively, but it also affects the
individuals happiness.
The higher the income of a person, the more likely they are to want more. When a
persons income increases, they buy more expensive things and spend money more frequently,

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which is known as lifestyle inflation. Because people get use to their inflated lifestyle, their
ability to live modestly depreciates (Kirkham). When people lose their ability to live modestly,
they may feel like they consistently need more. Feelings of dissatisfaction can lead to
unhappiness and stress as most people already know. Higher income affects the individuals
feelings as well as others.
Wealthier individuals became less caring about the emotions of others. Psychologists at
University of California in Berkeley asked 129 students to compare themselves to others who
appeared to be richer or poorer than the students. The students who felt wealthier behaved less
courteous to the emotions of others, regardless of their actual economic class (Szalavitz).
Therefore, not only does being rich make you less generous, but just feeling richer makes you
less considerate of others.
The statistics show that being wealthy causes less generosity, more unhappiness, and
disrespectfulness. But a student wanting to become a doctor one day should not include
selfishness in that dream. In fact, being a successful person does not need to automatically add
selfishness to a persons life. Acknowledging that people shouldnt be judged on their economic
background can help a rich person prevent the negative side effects of wealth.

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Works Cited
Kirkham, Elyssa. Does Being Wealthy Make You Greedy? GOBankingRates.
GOBankingRates, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
Piff, Paul. Does Money Make You Mean? TED. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
Szalavitz, Maia. Why the Rich Are Less Ethical: They See Greed as Good. Time. Time Inc., 28
Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.