This one’s a few days old, but I just came across it and couldn’t resist.

Researchers at Cal-Berkeley have conducted a series of studies indicating that upper-class people are more likely than lower-class people to lie, cheat, and break the law.

“We found that it is much more prevalent for people in the higher ranks of society to see  greed and self-interest … as  good pursuits,” said Paul Piff, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at Berkeley. “This resonates with a lot of current events these days.”

Sure does.

After the jump: Seven signs of malignity, and Rick Santorum restores my peace of mind.

Piff et al did a total of seven studies. From the abstract of their paper, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (link to abstract; online access to full paper restricted to subscribers):

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.

In Study #6, the prize involved was $50. So rich people are willing to cheat for pocket change.

Gosh. And here I thought that greed is good, that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, and that poverty is the outward manifestation of faulty character. Maybe not?

Large sums of money may give people greater feelings of entitlement, causing those people to be the most averse to wealth distribution, Piff continued.  Poorer people may be less likely to cheat, because they are more dependent on their community at large, he said.

But wait a minute– this study came out of a university! And Cal-Berkeley, no less! There you go: liberal academia, brainwashing our young, etc., etc., Rick Santorum says so.

Whew! I think we can safely ignore this piece of Communist trash and get on with the Ayn Randification of our society.