Wealthy Have Difficulty Detecting Emotions: Study

Rich people don't choose to be rude. They simply can't help it.

Affluent people -- in terms of income, social status and education -- have trouble detecting others' emotions, a study in Psychological Science found. While lower-class people are generally skilled at figuring out what other people are feeling, their upper-class fellows are more insensitive.

The wealthy don't need to rely on others for help, the study determined, and so their people skills have atrophied.

"They're less concerned and less perceptive of other people's needs and wishes," said study co-author Michael Kraus, according to MSNBC. "They show a deficit in empathic accuracy."

In the study, people with more education and from wealthier backgrounds had more difficulty interpreting pictures of faces. While "lower-class" people tended to correctly identify emotions, "upper-class" people had trouble.

Even as they will likely enjoy extended tax cuts under the Obama administration's deal, the nation's wealthy won't be well equipped to share their delight.

Comments

[TeraWatt60]

01:39 AM on 12/21/2010

This explains much ...even if supposedly born "poor" those that feel that they have truly made it, whether by guile and backstabbing all the "small people"  or by sheer luck, lose what little ability they ever had to know how their actions effect others. In other words, they can't help be arrogant j.erks.

What this means is perhaps others should attempt to teach/remind them by not indulging or tolerating them. When treated in high handed or an arrogant  manner by someone with high "status"  call them on it and remind them that everyone else in the world is not "beneath them" just because they slept with , blackmailed or where accidentally born into money.

I had several clients  in my office (I service and build computers and maintain them  ) needing help the other day and some rich b*stard came in and proceeded to rudely insist that I help him immediately, even though he had been acknowledged and I told him I would be with him when I had assisted the others. He proceeded to "tell me" his net worth and how I should realize that entitled him to immediate service. I simply and matter of factly told this plutocratic (coincidently a bigwig Republican Conservative in town) a*hole that since I had not added a "High Net Worth Fee" to his service contract he was NOT entitled to more/less service than anyone else, in fact, I was more inclined NOT to help him simply because someone of lesser means is making more of a sacrifice of their income when they purchased from me than someone like him...

[seeksthetruth]

08:06 PM on 12/20/2010

Many of them are sociopaths. Sociopaths don't care about other people.

[Jeffin90019]

07:13 PM on 12/20/2010

I believe you used the wrong word. It's not that they have trouble "detecting." They have trouble "caring."

[Erica]

07:41 PM on 12/20/2010

Amen.

[MohammedAbbasi]

03:56 PM on 12/20/2010

not a surprise at all

[cosmicjoke]

03:12 PM on 12/20/2010

The study suggests because wealthy people don't need to rely on others for help their people have atrophied. Maybe it's the other way around. They never had people skills which made it easy to trample on others in their quest for wealth.

[TeraWatt60]

01:01 AM on 12/21/2010

exactly

[NormalAmericanMan]

12:57 PM on 12/20/2010

Still no cure for cancer.

[southingtonian]

12:19 AM on 12/20/2010

'the nation's wealthy won't be well equipped to share their delight. '
I don't expect them to experience delight, since most of them (warren buffett blessedly exempt) consider the tax cuts their birthright.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

12:10 AM on 12/20/2010

As a very left-brained person, I've always had difficulty figuring out other people's emotions too. (MS in Math, BA in Math & Physics, nearly 40 years experience working in IT)

Why am I not rich? I've been cheated!

[CosmicIrony]

02:10 PM on 12/20/2010

I think you have cause and effect reversed! Being rich causes most people to no longer care what other people feel. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are making progress, though, on changing that.

[Kathy8185]

08:01 PM on 12/19/2010

It is so important in business to be able read people's emotions.
http://www.sales-training-for-business.com/definition-of-emotional-intelligence.html

[vancedecker]

08:14 PM on 12/19/2010

It's important in business to be able to manipulate people's emotions to your advantage. Be specific.

[southingtonian]

12:03 AM on 12/20/2010

A lack of empathy makes it so much easier to see others as 'marks' and profit at their expense. last 5 years as case in point.

[SpuriusLartius]

06:38 PM on 12/19/2010

In the move "Dogs of War" (circa 1980), the would-be dictator of the made-up African nation of Zangara, gives a little speech that goes something like this: "Men are not judged, they are measured...measured by their appetites. The more you consume, the more you are."
Therefore, in this line of thinking, the are better than we (the poor) are; And so they don't have to care about anyone less well off. We just have to deal with it; that simple!

[kestryl]

10:32 PM on 12/20/2010

Yeah, they (rich) don't mean to be @$$hats, It can't be helped. Can't we (the rest of us) peons just deal? BTW, I love the movie Dogs of War.

[vancedecker]

06:30 PM on 12/19/2010

The results are simple to explain. It's not that all rich are genetic sociopaths, born without the ability to have emotions or a conscience for that matter. We've always had those people throughout history.

What has changed is that our society has gone from one that through it's culture and values naturally "weeded out" those people, to one that actively promoted and encourages sociopathic personalities. So now, of course, greater percentages, instead of ending up in prisons and jail, are ending up in the upper classes of society. You have only to look at the modern day corporate heroes: Mark Zuckerberg, Meg Whitman, Jeff Skilling, etc...

[rainkitty]

09:52 PM on 12/19/2010

And investment bankers.

[Liz Patrick]

04:54 AM on 12/21/2010

This country was built by sociopaths. I mean hi, hello slavery? That's pretty darn sociopathic.

[vancedecker]

06:21 PM on 12/19/2010

the term is 'sociopath'

[namora]

03:03 PM on 12/19/2010

Not all rich people are fiscal sociopaths, but it helps. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Heard that somewhere.

[kestryl]

10:35 PM on 12/20/2010

I think it was an obscure text, um... the Bible(?) I think some dude, Jesus said it.

[Mar23]

02:39 PM on 12/19/2010

Well, duh! That's how they get to be wealthy.

[Sendil Nathan]

01:25 PM on 12/19/2010

The psychographic profile is called " Apathetic Materialists" for a reason. For more info on the empirical research read the report highlights for free at http://www.Decitica.com where we posted the findings on post-recession American Consumers. The paid version was presented to the boards of Wall Street banks & financial institutions between 2009 & early 2010 and have long since fine tuned products and services to cater to this psychographic profile - Apathetic Materialists.