Understanding and Overcoming Hate
  • Home
    • Content Previews
    • Petition to American Electrorate
  • Overview
    • Site Contents
    • About This Site
    • Features
    • Future Developments
    • Index of All Topics
    • Index of All Links
    • Links to all slideshows
  • Understanding Hate
    • Introduction
    • What is Hate? >
      • Hate as an Emotion >
        • Papers: Hate as an Emotion
      • Hate as a Belief >
        • Papers: Hate as Belief
      • Hate as an Act >
        • Papers: Hate as an Act
      • Hate as a Policy >
        • Papers: Hate as Policy
    • The Roots of Hate >
      • Early Imprints >
        • When Needs are Not Met
        • Papers; Not Meeting Needs
      • What Are We Doing To Our Children? >
        • Children in Dire Circumstances
      • Effects of Trauma and Abuse >
        • Papers: Stress Effects
        • Papers: Trauma Abuse Effects
        • Links: Stress, Trauma Research
      • Causes and Effects of Bullying
      • Trauma, bigotry, violence linked
      • Authoritarian Upbringings >
        • Papers: Authoritarian Roots
        • Papers: SDO and Authoritarianism
      • Absolutism and Insularity >
        • Papers: Absolutism
      • Papers: Early Roots of Prejudice
      • Impaired Cognition >
        • Papers: Impaired Cognition
      • The Violent Brain >
        • Papers: Violent Brain
      • Roots of Violence and Cruelty >
        • Chart: Powderkeg Formula
        • Papers: Roots of Violence
        • Articles and Blog Posts
      • Ghosts of the Past >
        • Ripples of revenge
        • Papers: Ghosts of the Past
    • How Hate Manifests >
      • Chart
      • Everyday Hate >
        • Papers: Social Rejection
        • Papers: Bullying
      • Social Injustice and Discrimination >
        • Papers: Discrimination
        • Papers: Inequality
        • Articles: Inequality Effects
        • Articles: Cognitive Exhaustion
        • "White" Privilege
      • Stereotyping and Caricature >
        • Papers: Stereotyping
        • Stereotyping
      • Prejudice, Racism and Bigotry >
        • Articles and Blog Posts
        • Papers: Prejudice Racism
        • Papers: Skin color and face
        • Papers: InGroup Outgroup
        • Papers: Implicit Bias
        • Evolutionary Issues >
          • More blog posts
      • Dehumanizing >
        • Views about the outsider
        • Papers: Dehumanizing
      • Hate Crimes >
        • Papers: Hate Crimes
      • Hate Groups >
        • Links: Hate Groups Research
        • Papers and news: Hate Groups
      • Abuse of Power >
        • Papers: Abuse of Power
        • Evil Men: Tyrants, Dictators
        • Blogs and news
        • Articles: SDO and RWA
      • Xenophobia >
        • Papers: Xenophobia
      • Collective Rage >
        • Papers: Collective Violence
      • Extremism >
        • Papers: Terrorism
        • Papers: Extremism
      • Cruelty on Mass Scale >
        • Links
        • Papers: Cruelty on mass scale
    • Hate in the News >
      • News: Hate in America
      • News: Hate Trends Worldwide
      • Extremism: Current Trends: News
      • Authoritarianism Trends
    • Group Influence >
      • Search for Belonging >
        • Papers: Search for Belonging
      • Social Cognition and Learning >
        • Papers: Fairness
        • Papers: Social Cognition
      • Group Think >
        • Papers: Intergroup Dynamics
        • Papers: Group Think
      • Status and Stigma >
        • Papers: Status and Stigma
      • Conformity >
        • Papers: Conformity
      • Obedience and Compliance >
        • Papers: Obedience
      • Bystander Effect
    • Social Defenses >
      • Papers: Social Defenses
      • System Justification >
        • Papers: System Justification
      • Projection >
        • Papers: Projection
      • Denial >
        • Papers: Denial
        • Examples of Denial
        • Papers: Denialism
      • Attribution and Comparison >
        • Attribution Fallacies
        • Papers: Attribution
      • Cognitive Dissonance >
        • Papers: Cognitive Dissonance
    • Fanning the Flames >
      • Media and Persuasion
      • Papers: Persuasion
      • Papers: Indoctrination
      • Papers: Hate Speech
      • Papers: Attitude change
      • News: Cyberhate
      • Links
      • Media Effects in the News
      • Persuasion: Blog Posts and Articles
    • How We Fool Ourselves >
      • Mechanisms: Cognitive Biases and Heuristics >
        • Papers: Brain Tricks
        • Biases: Blogs and Articles
        • Biases organized
      • On Being Wrong
      • Probability and Decision-Making Biases >
        • Papers and articles
      • Memory Distortions >
        • Papers: Memory illusions
      • Perceptual Illusions >
        • Papers: Perceptual Illusions
        • Illusions: Blog Posts and Articles
      • Self-Deception >
        • Papers: Self-deception
      • Delusion, Confabulation >
        • Papers: Delusions
        • Papers: False Beliefs
      • Conspiracy Theories
      • Papers: Neural mechanisms mystical states
      • Brain and Spirituality: Articles
    • Brain and Belief >
      • What is a Belief? >
        • Papers: Belief Formation
        • Papers: Automaticity
      • Perception and Processing >
        • Papers: Perception
      • Salience and Tagging >
        • Papers: Salience
        • Papers: Essentialism
      • Creating Categories >
        • Papers: Categorizing
      • Cognitive Unconscious
      • Embodied Cognition >
        • Papers: Embodied Cognition
      • Emotion Cognition Interplay >
        • Papers
      • Creating a Story about the World >
        • Papers: Story Creation
      • Investing in Cherished Beliefs >
        • Papers
      • Identifying Self with Belief >
        • Papers
      • Search for Meaning >
        • Papers: Meaning
    • Search for Certainty >
      • Dogmatic Beliefs
      • Belief Perseverance
      • Papers: Feeling of Knowing
      • Papers: Rigid Dogmatic thinking
    • Index: All Biases, Distortions and Influences
  • Overcoming Hate
    • Overview of Topics
    • Introduction
    • Prevention >
      • Meeting Formative Needs of Children >
        • Papers: Child and Brain Development
        • Papers: nurturing, attachment bonding
        • Links: Development
      • Promoting Parental readiness >
        • Papers
        • Links: Helping Parents
      • Supporting Healthy Families >
        • Papers
      • Enhancing Resilience >
        • Papers
      • Cultivating Empathy and Conscience >
        • Roots of Morality
        • Empathic Imagination
        • Mirror Neurons
        • Empathy Programs
        • Links: Empathy
      • All papers: Morality and Empathy >
        • Papers: Roots of Morality and Conscience
        • Papers: Empathy Altruism Compassion
        • Articles, Posts: Empathy
        • Papers: Moral Decision-Making
        • Papers: Moral Cognition
        • Papers: Mirror Neurons
        • Articles: Prosocial Behavior
      • Long-Term Social Investment >
        • Papers
    • Education >
      • Enhancing Emotional and Social Skills >
        • Papers: Emotional Intelligence
        • Papers: Social Cooperation
        • Links: emotional development
      • Building Reflective Minds >
        • Critical Thinking >
          • Papers: Critical Thinking
        • Metacognition >
          • Papers: Metacognition
        • Perceiving Bias >
          • Papers: Perceiving Bias
        • Creative and Lateral Thinking >
          • Papers: Creative Thinking
        • Mindfulness >
          • Papers: Mindfulness
          • Blogs and articles
        • Interoception >
          • Papers: Interoception
        • Fluid and Flexible >
          • Papers: Fluid Intelligence
      • Cross-cultural Awareness >
        • Links: Cross-Cultural
        • Papers: Cultural Neuroscience
        • Articles: Cultural Awareness
      • Media Awareness >
        • Links
        • Papers
      • Teaching an Honest History >
        • Papers
        • Links: Honest History
      • Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility >
        • Papers
      • Ethics Training >
        • Papers
      • Whole Child Learning >
        • Papers
    • Intervention >
      • Social Support and Inclusion >
        • Papers: Social Support
      • Helping Children in Dire Conditions >
        • Papers: Helping children
      • Preventing Violence and Bullying >
        • Anti-bullying programs and resources
        • Helping At-Risk Kids
        • Papers on helping kids
      • Standing Up To Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry >
        • Papers: Reducing Prejudice
        • Articles: Reducing Prejudice
        • Papers: Stopping hate crimes
        • Papers: Offsetting Extremism
        • Programs and Projects
        • Hatebraker Examples: News
      • Training Our Protectors >
        • Papers: Training Protectors
      • Healing the Hurt >
        • Papers: Healing Hurt
        • Articles and Blog Posts
      • Educating Our Leaders >
        • Papers: Educating Leaders
      • Resolving Conflict >
        • Papers: Resolving Conflict
        • Programs and articles
      • Israel-Palestine >
        • Papers: Israel-Palestine
        • News and blog posts
      • Promoting Dignity >
        • Links: Human Rights
        • Papers: Human Rights
      • Healing the Ghosts of the Past >
        • Papers: Reconciliation
      • Restorative Justice >
        • Papers: Restorative Justice
      • Confronting Mass Atrocities >
        • Papers: Confronting War Crimes
    • Social Advances >
      • Charters and Declarations
      • Slideshow: Social Advances
      • Links: social advances history
      • Timelines: Social Advances
    • More Solutions >
      • Classroom Tools
      • Organizations
      • Programs and Projects
      • Effective Models
  • Resources
    • Academic Papers: Topic Index
    • Background: Sciences Related to Hate >
      • Related Sciences of Hate
      • Social Psychology Subtopics
      • Brain and Life Sciences
      • New Research Tools
      • Links: Brain Mapping
      • Process of Science
      • What is Good Science?
      • Links: Understanding Science
      • Papers: About Good Science
    • Science Links
    • Timelines of Knowledge >
      • Index of all Pioneers
      • Timeline: Early Pioneers
      • Timeline: Group Psychology
      • Timeline: Prejudice
      • Timeline: Persuasion
      • Timeline: Social Psychology Pioneers
      • Timeline: Authoritarianism
      • Timeline: Scientific bias
    • Researchers and Experts >
      • Developmental Foundations
      • Moral Cognition, Empathy
      • Search for Meaning
      • Search for Belonging
      • Search for Certainty
      • Ghosts of the Past
      • Breaking Cycle of Hate: Solutions
    • Other Research and Studies >
      • Syllabi
      • Bibliographies
      • Our Syllabi
    • Recommendations >
      • Books: Topic Overview >
        • Development
        • Empathy, Morality
        • Brain and Belief
        • Tricks of Mind
        • Stress, Trauma, Violence
        • Prejudice, Racism, Stereotyping
        • Overcoming Prejudice, Racism
        • Historical Insight
        • Human Rights Abuses
        • Seminal Works
      • Journals and Magazines
      • Films and Videos
    • Timeline of Hate >
      • Links: Historical Injustice
      • History of Hate in America: articles
      • Index of Historical Injustice
  • Tools
    • Links: Games and Exercises
    • Self-Awareness Tools >
      • What Parents Can do
      • Learning about our Labels
    • Blog

Areas of Research:

  • Social Psychology of Wealth and Inequality
  • Social Neuroscience
  • Neuroeconomics
  • Historical Perspective
  • Disdain for the Poor 
  • Socioeconomic Realities
  • U.S. Trends
  • Global Trends

Education, Neoliberal Culture, and the Brain
By Gary Olson / July 6th, 2013
Dissident Voice
Whereas the evolutionary process has given rise to a hard-wired neural system that equips us to connect with one another, many experts believe
that our empathically-impaired society needs nothing less than an “empathy epidemic.” Among the factors frequently cited as interfering with constructing an empathic culture we find everything from parenting, education, and economic inequality to early childhood programs, meaningful social connections, and misplaced emphasis on achieving social status.

Gary Olson is professor and chair of the political science department at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. He is the author of Empathy Imperiled: Capitalism, Culture, and the Brain (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013).

Why Do The Mega Rich Continue To Work? - Forbes
January 29, 2013
Depending on the day, my number varies between $1 million and $50 million. My friend says she can be happy with $100,000. Another sets her limit at $10 million.

How Americans view wealth and inequality
BBC Business
Viewpoint by Dan Ariely
20 August 2012 

The 1% Are the Very Best Destroyers of Wealth the World Has Ever Seen
by George Monbiot/The Guardian/UK
November 8, 2011 
Our common treasury in the last 30 years has been captured by industrial psychopaths. That's why we're nearly bankrupt. 

Is The Market Rational? No, say the experts. But neither are you--so don't go thinking you can outsmart it. 
(FORTUNE Magazine). 
By Justin Fox. 
December 9, 2002 

The 2011 PLMS Conference: The Psychology of Inequality
The Fifth Conference on Law and Mind Sciences

Income Inequality Worse Now Than In Time Of Slavery 

Tax Cuts For The Rich Linked To Income Inequality, Not Economic Growth, Study Finds 
The Huffington Post   
Bonnie Kavoussi 
09/17/2012
A new study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has found that over the past 65 years, tax cuts for the rich have not led to economic growth and instead are linked to greater income inequality in the United States.


Why Inequality Is Bad for the One Percent
The Greater Good
By Jason Marsh | September 25, 2012 
What Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” video reveals about the links between inequality, compassion, and happiness.
Related Articles from the Greater Good
  • Three Lessons from Mitt Romney about Bullying
  • Robert Reich on Social Justice and Social Empathy
  • You Can’t Buy Empathy
  • Low-Income People Quicker to Show Compassion
  • The Poor Give More
  • Affluent People More Likely to be Scofflaws
  • When the Going Gets Tough, the Affluent Get Lonely
  • Trust and Inequality
  • The Limits of Empathy
  • America’s Trust Fall
  • Does Inequality Make Us Unhappy?
  • Happiness is about Respect, not Riches

Dismantling the Dix Legacy The End of Compassion 
by Tom Campbell
October 29, 2012
Richmond County Daily Journal - My Spin 
The physical abandonment of the Dorothea Dix campus in Raleigh is a final exclamation point on the state’s moral abandonment of the mentally ill, essentially returning us to mid-19th century conditions when the mentally ill were confined to jails, locked in attics or hidden from sight in poorhouses.

Johnson Cornell University
Bob Frank's research on the perils of income inequality lauded in NYT OpEd 
November 9, 2010
Concurring with Frank et al., opinion piece discusses the by-product 'keeping up with the Joneses' effect of income inequality
In "Our banana republic," (New York Times, Nov. 6, 2010), Nicholas Kristof states: "Inequality isn’t just an economic issue but also a question of human dignity and happiness.
Mounting evidence suggests that losing a job or a home can rock our identity and savage our self-esteem. Forced moves wrench families from their schools and support networks.
In short, inequality leaves people on the lower rungs feeling like hamsters on a wheel spinning ever faster, without hope or escape."

The Perils of Income Inequality
Geoffrey R. Stone
Huffington Post 
November 5, 2012

Krugman and Stiglitz: Crazy Austerity Policies Inflict Untold Damage on Economy
AlterNet / By Lynn Stuart Parramore
October 24, 2012
Two Nobel laureates, an election, and a shaky economy. The message? We can do a whole lot better.

The United States of Inequality
By Timothy Noah
SLATE
Sept. 3, 2010 
Timothy Noah kicked off this series by looking at whether race, gender, or the breakdown of the nuclear family affected income inequality, and then he examined immigration, thetechnology boom, federal government policy, the decline of labor unions, international trade, whether the ultra wealthy are to blame, and what role the decline of K-12 educationhas played. In conclusion, Noah explained why we can't ignore income inequality. PDF below:
great_divergence.pdf
File Size: 227 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


Wealth, Income, and Power
by Prof. G. William Domhoff, Sociology Dept. UC Santa Cruz
First posted September 2005; most recently updated October 2012
This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators.


The Brutal Truth About How Childhood Determines Your Economic Destiny 
Lynn Stuart Parramore, AlterNet
January 10, 2013 
The British class system looks frighteningly rigid in "56 Up." But is America any better?


Kenny, C., Lincoln, T., Collins, C., & Farris, L. (2006). Spending Millions to Save Billions: The Campaign of the Super Wealthy to Kill the Estate Tax. Washington, DC: Public Citizen / United for a Fair Economy.

To Reduce Inequality, Tax Wealth, Not Income
By DANIEL ALTMAN, November 18, 2012
OP-ED NYT

‘Epistemic Closure’? Those Are Fighting Words
By PATRICIA COHEN
NYT
April 27, 2010

AlterNet / By Lynn Stuart Parramore
The Obscenely Rich Men Bent on Shredding the Safety Net
CEOs talk about shared sacrifice, but the only thing they want to share is your retirement money with their wealthy friends.
December 3, 2012The Campaign to Fix the Debt is a huge, and growing, coalition of powerful CEOs, politicians and policy makers on a mission to lower taxes for the rich and to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid under the cover of concern about the national debt.

Global Peace Index
The Great Divide: Global income inequality and its cost

Income inequality is surging, and there are few countries where it is rising faster than the United States. The distance between rich and poor is greater in America than nearly all other developed countries, making the US a leader in a trend that economists warn has dire consequences. GlobalPost sets out on a reporting journey to get at the ‘ground truth’ of inequality through the lenses of education, race, immigration, health care, government, labor and natural resources. The hope is to hold a mirror up to the US to see how it compares to countries around the world.

High Deprivation, Population Density And Inequality Found To Increase Rates Of Schizophrenia
Medical News Today
20 Dec 2012 
Higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas can be attributed to increased deprivation, increased population density and an increase in inequality within a neighbourhood, new research reveals. The research, led by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, was published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. 

Inequality Is Holding Back The Recovery
Joseph Stiglitz
From opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com -January 19, 2013
 Our economy won't come back strong unless it also becomes more fair.

America Faces Catastrophic Levels Of Inequality - Business Insider
January 29, 2013
Robert Reich is one of the nation's leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the...

Inequality for All: Sundance Review
From www.hollywoodreporter.com– January 19, 2013
Policy wonk Robert Reich cuts through fiscal-cliff jargon to explain the true economic crisis facing the U.S. in this illustrated lecture.

A Comment on What’s Causing the Rise in Inequality
From econospeak.blogspot.fr - January 18, 2013
 RT @LiberalAgonist: Some fresh thinking from Peter Dorman on the causes of income inequality: http://t.co/1SyWjKZu

The Cost of Inequality: How wealth and income extremes hurt us all | Oxfam GB | Policy & Practice
From policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk - January 18, 2013
 Oxfam GB is a leading aid and development charity with a worldwide reputation for excellence and over 60 years of experience, working with partners in more than 70 countries.

Ill Fares The Land: poverty, inequality and the crisis of capitalism
Fromwww.internationalfuturesforum.com -January 25, 2013
 RT @graham_iff: 'Ill fares the land: poverty, inequality and the crisis of capitalism' (with a Scottish post-Davos twist) http://t.co/wAJoWFhD
Feeling powerless increases the weight of the world... literally
From medicalxpress.com
Scientists have found that people who feel powerless actually see the world differently, and find a task to be more physically challenging than those with a greater sense of personal and social power.
For the Love of Money
From www.nytimes.com
We are letting money addiction drive too much of our society.
When charitable acts are perceived as 'tainted' by personal gain
From medicalxpress.com
We tend to perceive a person's charitable efforts as less moral if the do-gooder reaps a reward from the effort, according to new research.
The Luxury of Invisible Privilege
From goodmenproject.com 
Jackie Summers examines the way racism reproduces - and how well-meaning people feed the disease by denying their privilege.
Trader Psychology: Why the Stock Market is Always Right
From www.pretzelcharts.com
The need to be right, at least on occasion, is important to an individual's self-esteem. Most of us don't feel as good about ourselves when we're wrong, so some of us ...
The True Source Of Greed | Sustainable Man
Why We're So Materialistic, Even Though It Doesn't Make Us Happy
From lifehacker.com
No matter who you are, it's easy to get a little caught up in the idea of getting new stuff. Here's a look at why your brain is so materialistic and what you can do to keep it from overwhelming you.
Why Materialistic People Are Less Happy in Marriage | TIME.com
Hot on the heels of a study suggesting that people who have a car, investments or other personal wealth are more likely to marry drops the other shoe: a study that suggests that people who prioritize money are less likely to be satisfied
The Psychological Need the Wealthy Can't Fulfill - Pacific Standard
From www.psmag.com - March 1, 2014
Attempts to explain their zealous defenses of the one-percent generally involve phrases like “limited view of reality” or “social bubble,” but perhaps the most interesting...
Rosmann: Happiness tied to usefulness, altruism | INFORUM | 
From www.inforum.com - March 8, 2014
Many of us wonder, “Would I be happier if I won the lottery or were rich?” Others ask, “Do wealthy people live longer?” The questions are straight-forward, but the answers are complex.
Can Money Buy Happiness? The Science of Materialism, Animated
From www.brainpickings.org
Experiences vs. things, or why the emotional rewards of pro-social spending outshine those of self-interest.
Bargain for billionaires: Why philanthropy is more about P.R. than progress
From www.salon.com - Feb 10, 2014
Charity is great, but it won't bring real change — and worse, it perpetuates the myth that we need the ultra-rich
Click to link to academic papers on effects of inequality and deprivation
Papers on Inequality

From: The Situationist

  • The Situation of Money-Based Happiness
  • Adult Well Being and Social Connection
  • Dan Gilbert on the Situation of Happy
  • On Money and Motivation
  • The Situation of High Marginal Income Tax Rates and Motivation
  • Money and the Situation of Happiness
  • The Situation of Money and Happiness
  • Receiving by Giving
  • Something to Smile About
  • Resisting Materialism
  • Redirect
  • Money Priming
  • Body Image and Materialism
  • Law, Competition, Self-Interest
  • The Situation of Being Green
  • The Situation of Objectification
  • The Situational Effects of Wealth and Status
  • Shocking for Money

Shivering Liberals, Parched Conservatives
Huffington Post (blog)
By Wray Herbert
March 21 2012
Will your situation influence the empathy you feel for this stranger? Or what about her values and politics? What if the story mentions in passing that the hiker was a well-known gay rights activist, or that she was a staffer for a staunchly 

Wealth and the empathy problem
Marketplace.org
by Eliza Ronalds-Hannon 
February 28, 2012

The Money-Empathy Gap
New York Magazine
By Lisa Miller 
Jul 1, 2012
New research suggests that more money makes people act less human. Or at least less humane.

Self-Interest Spurs Society’s ‘Elite’ To Lie, Cheat On Tasks, Study Finds
Bloomberg
By Elizabeth Lopatto
Feb 27, 2012 

Upper class people are more likely to behave selfishly, studies suggest
guardian.co.uk
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Feb 27 2012 
Higher social classes more likely to lie, cheat, cut up other road users and not stop at pedestrian crossings, say researchers

The Secret of Why Wealthy Americans Aren't Always the Most Charitable
AlterNet 
By Alyssa Figueroa
August 28, 2012
It's more complicated than just how much money you make -- but where you live is definitely a factor.

America’s Generosity Divide
Chronicle of Philanthropy
By Emily Gipple and Ben Gose
August 19, 2012
Learn how tax breaks, politics, faith—even the neighborhoods Americans call home—can have a profound effect on generosity.

Who Cheats More: The Rich or the Poor?
From geraldguild.com - August 31, 2013
It is widely believed that as a society, we are heavily burdened by freeloaders who are content with living off the fruits of others' labor. Inherent in this belief is the idea that the poor are mo...

Does money make you mean?
Video on NBCNews.com
Jul 11, 2012

Do ‘The Good Rich’ Exist?
Gawker: January 10, 2013
We live in a world in which wealth is distributed in a wildly unequal way. A tiny few have billions of dollars, while many more have nothing. Though the reactions to this persistent and growing state of inequality span the ideological spectrum, it's fair to say that most people consider it a problem. For the very wealthy—and their sympathizers—extensive philanthropy is often held up as their personal nod to the world's unfairness. These generous philanthropists are considered to be the good ones.
Yes, Gawker, 'The Good Rich' Do Exist
Forbes: January 11, 2013

Narcissism: Why It's So Rampant in Politics
Psychology Today
Dec 21, 2011

Ayn Rand vs. the Pygmies: Did human evolution favor individualists or altruists?
By Eric Michael Johnson
Oct. 3, 2012 
Ayn Rand on Human Nature
Primate Diaries
Scientific American Blogs
By Eric Michael Johnson | October 5, 2012 |  11
Picture
One nation under Galt: How Ayn Rand’s toxic philosophy permanently transformed America
From www.salon.com - December 17, 2014
The "Atlas Shrugged" author helped make the United States one of the most uncaring nations in the industrial world


Why the Obscenely Wealthy Whine When They Have It So Good
AlterNet / By Frank Joyce
October 9, 2012 
Romney's 47% comments are exactly what wealthy conservatives think: that they are the true victims.

A Poverty of Empathy: The GOP’s social welfare philosophy dates back to 1818.
BY MAGGIE GARB
In These Times
OCTOBER 16, 2012

Conservative Inequality Denialism
Timothy Noah
The New Republic
October 25, 2012 

Will One Psychological Flaw Destroy Our Whole Economy?
John Selby
Mind Management Consultant
HuffPost Blog
November 26, 2010


Only one in 20 bosses is a 'good leader'
By Rebecca Burn-Callander
Management Today
10 October 2012
In a damning assessment of today's business leaders, a new poll of 2,000 workers by management consultancy Orion Partners has found that just 4.8% of staff believe in their bosses' leadership.

Madoff, R. D. (2010, July 12). America Builds an Aristocracy. New York Times, p. A-19.

Narcissists and Children of Narcissists: Yes, It Is Getting Worse!
Huffington Post (blog)
Vivian Norris, Ph.D. Globalization and Media Studies
November 16, 2012
It is getting worse! It seems every person I speak to about this has a horrific story of encountering people who lack empathy, act like bullies, believe themselves to be part of some kind of elite, or who have abused others, including their own ...
Says this article from Slate: "One of the key traits of narcissistic personality disorder is having the feeling that 'the rules don't apply to you.' You are special. You are different."
If you are wondering whether or not you are a narcissist (you might be, as they have a tendency to read about themselves), take this test: 
http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/narcissistic.htm.

How to Stop Psychopath CEOs from Looting and Destroying Their Own Companies
There are ways to weed them out.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY AND WORKPLACE  
The Tyee / By Mitchell Anderson
November 26, 2012

Quarter Of Wall Street Executives See Wrongdoing As Key To Success: Survey
Reuters  |  Posted: 07/10/2012

The Power Paradox
By Dacher Keltner | Winter 2007-08
True power requires modesty and empathy, not force and coercion, argues Dacher Keltner. But what people want from leaders—social intelligence—is what is damaged by the experience of power.

Poor people want to be poor, they say. Really?
Poverty matters blog-The Guardian UK
Jonathan Glennie
3 August 2012
The failure of so many people to empathise with the reality of life for poor people is a major barrier to poverty reduction

The Empathy Gap
Rey Faustino
Founder and CEO, One Degree
Huffington Post (blog)
01/17/2013
"People don't have the right to be in poverty in America," an acquaintance told me. He continued, "If people aren't accessing the wealth of resources that America has, that's their fault. Why are you working with poor people?"

I'll never forget those words from a well-meaning man from a middle-class immigrant family. Working with families from low-income communities across the country, I have seen people from all walks of life who share the same line of thinking:


New Science Explains Why He's So Narcissistic
From www.huffingtonpost.com - August 26, 2013
The rich just love to look at themselves in the mirror. And that's only one of many signs that they're more narcissistic than everyone else, according to new research.

Wealth and narcissism
From blog.oregonlive.com - August 30, 2013
We are told, daily, that we live in an "Entitlement Society" spawned by social welfare programs run amok.

Concerns with attempts by neuroeconomics to answer the philosophical question “Is it rational to donate money for charity?” | Frontiers in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
From www.frontiersin.org - August 30, 2013

Privilege and white dudes
From itself.wordpress.com - August 27, 2013
First, I'm alarmed by the fact that the discussion has been so dominated by white dudes who are sick of privilege discourse. That being said, I want to boil down my problem with the term as it has ...
10 'brain bugs' can kill Wall Street's roaring bull - MarketWatch
Nobel economist Daniel Kahneman proved investment decisions are irrational. That was 2002. We're still irrational, on Wall Street and Main Street.
Why Good People Do Bad Things and What We Can Do About It | Business Ethics
We can agree that people desire – in general – to act in an ethical manner and see themselves as ethical people.
Homo Economicus Belief Inhibits Trust
From www.plosone.org -
As a foundational concept in economics, the homo economicus assumption regards humans as rational and self-interested actors. In contrast, trust requires individuals to believe partners’ benevolence and unselfishness. Thus, the homo economicus belief may inhibit trust. The present three experiments demonstrated that the direct exposure to homo economicus belief can weaken trust. And economic situations like profit calculation can also activate individuals’ homo economicus belief and inhibit their trust. It seems that people’s increasing homo economicus belief may serve as one cause of the worldwide decline of trust.
Reacting to the poor - negatively
Many Americans disdain the poor - and science proves it.
When people were placed in neuroimaging machines and shown photos of the poor and homeless, their brains responded as though the photos depicted things, not humans - a sign of revulsion.

Advocates for the poor aren't surprised, saying enmity toward the needy runs thick. Antipoverty types cite as evidence the ubiquitous calls from state and federal officials to cut food stamps and energy assistance; eliminate or reduce General Assistance, Social Security, Medicaid, Head Start, and welfare; fingerprint anyone receiving benefits; and so on.

"Americans react to the poor with disgust," said Susan Fiske, professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University and the designer of the neuroimaging tests. She has studied attitudes toward the poor for 12 years.
"It's the most negative prejudice people report," greater even than racism, Fiske said.

BECOMING WEALTHY: THE MYTH OF MERITOCRACY
by Gwen Sharp, PhD, Jun 27, 2014
How do people in the U.S. become wealthy?  According to the myth of meritocracy, they do so by hard work: blood, sweat, tears, a trace of talent, and a tad bit of luck.  This is the story told in this two-page ad for U.S. Trust in The New Yorker:


Psychological Effects of Power, Wealth, and Privilege


Picture
Why so many rich Americans think they’re middle class
From www.salon.com - December 21, 2014 
 Recent remarks from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew help shed light on a troubling phenomenon

This is your brain on money: Why America’s rich think differently than the rest of us
www.salon.com - SEAN MCELWEE OCT 11, 2014  
Nobody's perfect. But only the rich get away with thinking that their luck and their flaws are actually strengths

Life Among the Plutocrats -- What Unimaginable Wealth Does to a Person
They control our politics, shape our societies, outsource our jobs.
January 4, 2013  |The Tyee / By Crawford Kilian
Reviewed: Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, by Chrystia Freeland (2012)

Why privilege is so hard to give up
From www.salon.com - August 3, 2013
Acknowledging our racial or gender privilege forces us to admit we didn't achieve everything on our own

The Self-Attribution Fallacy
George Monbiot
November 7, 2011
Intelligence? Talent? No, the ultra-rich got to where they are through luck and brutality.

The Rich And Educated Believe Wealth Correlates With Virtue, Says Study 
Huffington Post
This study, "Social Class Rank, Essentialism, and Punitive Judgment," was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and was performed by...
Study finds wealth gives rise to a sense of entitlement and narcissistic behaviors | The Raw Story
August 25, 2013
Why People Work For Rewards They’ll Never Get to Enjoy
Why do rich people work so much?The quick, glib answer is that hard work is what made them rich in the first place. But then, why keep grinding away? At what point does it make sense to stop accumulating riches and start enjoying them?
The age of entitlement: how wealth breeds narcissism
From www.theguardian.com - July 7, 2014
Anne Manne: As people get richer, they are more likely to feel entitled, to exploit others, and to cheat. That extends to politics too
Is fear making you too conservative? - MarketWatch
And in a related paper, Browning found that, all else equal, those who had higher cognitive ability scores were actually decumulating their assets in a manner consistent with life-cycle theory.
NEW STUDY: Winning the Lottery Makes People Become Right Wing
Lottery winners become more conservative and less egalitarian after a windfall.
Social Class, Contextualism, and Empathic Accuracy
From pss.sagepub.com 
Michael W. Kraus, University of California, San Francisco 
Recent research suggests that lower-class individuals favor explanations of personal and political outcomes that are oriented to features of the external environment. We extended this work by testing the hypothesis that, as a result, individuals of a lower social class are more empathically accurate in judging the emotions of other people. In three studies, lower-class individuals (compared with upper-class individuals) received higher scores on a test of empathic accuracy (Study 1), judged the emotions of an interaction partner more accurately (Study 2), and made more accurate inferences about emotion from static images of muscle movements in the eyes (Study 3). Moreover, the association between social class and empathic accuracy was explained by the tendency for lower-class individuals to explain social events in terms of features of the external environment. The implications of class-based patterns in empathic accuracy for well-being and relationship outcomes are discussed.
Making the Choice Between Money and Meaning - The Pursuit of Happiness
Harvard Business Review, October 2, 2012 Umair Haque
You and I face the difficult choice of trading meaning for money; we weigh the searing moments of real human accomplishment against the soul-sucking "work" of earning the next car payment by polishing up another meaningless PowerPoint deck packed with tactics to win games whose net result is the creation of little of real value for much of anyone who's not a sociopath. This is the deepest kind of theft; not merely prosperity having been looted from societies, but significance having been stolen from human lives.
The Big Money Test - results
From www.bbc.co.uk
Thanks to the more than 109,000 people that took part, this is one of the largest studies of money psychology ever.
Money, Well-Being, and Loss Aversion
From pss.sagepub.com 
Higher income is associated with greater well-being, but do income gains and losses affect well-being differently? Loss aversion, whereby losses loom larger than gains, is typically examined in relation to decisions about anticipated outcomes. . .By failing to account for loss aversion, longitudinal studies of the relationship between income and well-being may have overestimated the positive effect of income on well-being. Moreover, societal well-being might best be served by small and stable income increases, even if such stability impairs long-term income growth.

The Rich Think They’re Superior. That’s Deluded and Dangerous.
From www.slate.com
London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, drew criticism late last year for saying that economic inequality can be attributed, in part, to IQ.
Anomalies The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias Daniel Kahneman, Jack L. Knetsch, and Richard H. Thaler
Super rich benefit from 'status quo bias'
From phys.org 
Income inequality – between the super-rich and the rest of us – and a sorry record of progressive policy initiatives from Congress all can be traced to a built-in 'status quo bias' in our political system, according to...
Rule from the Shadows – The Psychology of Power
From thrivingaudios.com 
This is an excellent video describing how we are manipulated by the media and politicians.  It traces the roots of the psychology used by such people as Edward Bernays who […]  
Having Power Diminishes Your Empathy For Others
From www.progressiveimpact.org - September 2, 2013
Douglas LaBier, Ph.D.
New research shows that increased power in an organization diminishes capacity for empathy.
Several research studies have shown that increasing power in an organization (or in any kind of relationship) tends to diminish capacity for empathy, compassion, and seeing another person’s perspective. This is especially damaging to effective leadership of people subordinate to those in power. Studies have shown that increased power diminishes activity of your “mirror neurons,” which provide the sense of connection with another person’s experience, and fuels empathy. Here’s the latest study that sheds more light on what happens. It shows the need for helping leaders develop and strengthen their capacity to connect with others’ reality and experience, which helps counter the tendency towards self-absorption in one’s own perspective, when one is in a higher-power status. 

When Power Goes To Your Head, It May Shut Out Your Heart
From www.3quarksdaily.com - September 1, 2013

Trader stress hormones "may exacerbate financial market crises"
From www.trust.org

The Psychological Need the Wealthy Can't Fulfill - Pacific Standard
Attempts to explain their zealous defenses of the one-percent generally involve phrases like “limited view of reality” or “social bubble,” but perhaps the most interesting...
You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More
From www.nytimes.com 
A new study illustrates humans’ deeply rooted desire to earn more than they possibly can consume.
It's All About Me
From www.psychologytoday.com 
How narcissists can convince you of their (undeserved) greatness.
Power, Corruption and Propaganda: A Quotation Sampler - WhoWhatWhy
This is the first installment in a series of quotes, videos and articles addressing perhaps the central issue of our time: the power of the unscrupulous few over the apathetic many, and our unwillingness or perceived inability to do something...
New Research Shows Money Makes You Happier, but More Evil | National Payday
To some it may seem like common sense, but since 1974 researchers have been using statistics and science to prove that, yes indeed, people with money are more
Paul Piff: Does money make you mean? | Video on TED.com
It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal. In this entertaining but sobering talk, social psychologist Paul Piff shares his research into how people behave when they feel wealthy.
Does atheism arise from wealth?
From www.patheos.com 
is atheism a luxury of the wealthy? Yes. But this isn't simply because the wealthy don’t need the comforts of a posited afterlife. It’s also because materially comfortable people have more energy to expend on negotiating their social worlds.
‘PBS NewsHour’: ‘Money on the Mind’
From www.truthdig.com 
A UC Berkeley study published earlier in 2013 showed links between wealth and selfish, anti-social behavior. The damning results are worth repeating.
Why you think you're better than everyone else
From io9.com 
People, as we know, have mixed abilities. One person might be more skilled than average when it comes physical ability, but lack judgment. Others excel when it comes to the ability to buckle down and work hard, but aren't the most inspired.
Six Reasons Why Politicians Believe They Can Lie
From www.psychologytoday.com
Do politicians really think they won't be caught when they lie?
Allan Johnson: Privilege, Power and Difference 2nd Interview - YouTube
From www.youtube.com - November 5, 2014 
Sociologist and author Allan G Johnson interviewed for a second time about his book "Power, Privilege and Difference" again on Extension Engaged with host Sc...


Affluenza: Growing Up in the Golden Ghetto

Affluenza and Spoiled Psychology - Guardian Express
Several families have had their holiday season turned upside down with the devastation “affluenza” sufferer, Ethan Couch and spoiled psychology has caused.
Picture
Megabucks breed mega insecurity: just ask the Rich Kids of Instagram | Marina Hyde
From www.theguardian.com - January 3, 2015
A lesson from the VIP area of first-world problems – the more you spend, the more cheated you feelOn the internet, it is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone unable to admire someone else must be jealous of them.


Neuroeconomics

Money may corrupt, but thinking about time can strengthen morality
From www.psypost.org 
Priming people to think about money makes them more likely to cheat, but priming them to think about time seems to strengthen their moral compass, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for...
Fooled by Randomness: Investor Perception of Fund Manager Skill
Heuer, Justus and Merkle, Christoph and Weber, Martin, Fooled by Randomness: Investor Perception of Fund Manager Skill (July 1, 2014). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2493053 orhttp://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2493053
Return chasing investors almost exclusively consider top-performing funds for their investment decision. When drawing conclusions about managerial skill of these top performers, they neglect cross-sectional information and volatility. We show that they fail to understand that, in large populations of mutual funds, a few will outperform by pure chance. In a series of surveys, we demonstrate that investors entirely ignore cross-sectional information and regard fund information in isolation only. In addition, investors do not sufficiently account for volatility and are thus likely to confuse risk taking with skill. In large mutual fund populations, this can lead to an over-allocation of capital to lucky past winners and to excessive risk taking by fund managers in order to attract inflows.
Why Neoliberal Values of Self-Enhancement Lead to Cheating in Higher Education
From pss.sagepub.com
A Motivational Account
Caroline Pulfrey
Fabrizio Butera
Institut des Sciences Sociales, University of Lausanne
The significant number of financial and academic frauds hitting the headlines is paralleled by high rates of cheating in schools. Does adherence to the neoliberal values that underpin our economic and academic systems predict acceptance of cheating? Four studies revealed that adherence to neoliberal values of self-enhancement—power and achievement—predicts the motivation to gain social approval; this motivation, in turn, favors the adoption of context-specific competitive performance-approach goals, which predict the condoning of cheating. An experimental study showed that when participants were exposed to a source promoting the values of universalism and benevolence (self-transcendence values, the normative opposite of self-enhancement values), self-enhancement adherence ceased to predict the condoning of cheating. Most important, a classroom-based study addressed the core question of cheating behavior, revealing that adherence to self-enhancement values indeed predicted actual cheating behavior. These results point to the relevance of diagnosing societal values as social causes of cheating.