WEBVTT 00:00:00.855 --> 00:00:03.043 I want you to, for a moment, 00:00:03.043 --> 00:00:07.068 think about playing a game of Monopoly, 00:00:07.068 --> 00:00:09.348 except in this game, that combination 00:00:09.348 --> 00:00:11.980 of skill, talent, and luck 00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:14.856 that helped earn you success in games, as in life, 00:00:14.856 --> 00:00:16.563 has been rendered irrelevant, 00:00:16.563 --> 00:00:18.781 because this game's been rigged, 00:00:18.781 --> 00:00:20.738 and you've got the upper hand. 00:00:20.738 --> 00:00:22.540 You've got more money, 00:00:22.540 --> 00:00:25.131 more opportunities to move around the board, 00:00:25.131 --> 00:00:27.342 and more access to resources. 00:00:27.342 --> 00:00:28.936 And as you think about that experience, 00:00:28.936 --> 00:00:30.891 I want you to ask yourself, 00:00:30.891 --> 00:00:32.922 how might that experience of being 00:00:32.922 --> 00:00:36.019 a privileged player in a rigged game 00:00:36.019 --> 00:00:38.915 change the way that you think about yourself 00:00:38.915 --> 00:00:42.786 and regard that other player? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:42.786 --> 00:00:45.387 So we ran a study on the UC-Berkeley campus 00:00:45.387 --> 00:00:48.305 to look at exactly that question. 00:00:48.305 --> 00:00:49.979 We brought in more than a hundred pairs 00:00:49.979 --> 00:00:52.171 of strangers into the lab, 00:00:52.171 --> 00:00:54.499 and with the flip of a coin 00:00:54.499 --> 00:00:56.363 randomly assigned one of the two 00:00:56.363 --> 00:00:58.615 to be a rich player in a rigged game. 00:00:58.615 --> 00:01:01.059 They got two times as much money. 00:01:01.059 --> 00:01:02.892 When they passed go, 00:01:02.892 --> 00:01:05.235 they collected twice the salary, 00:01:05.235 --> 00:01:07.010 and they got to roll both dice instead of one, 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:08.895 so they got to move around the board a lot more. 00:01:08.895 --> 00:01:11.933 (Laughter) 00:01:11.933 --> 00:01:13.693 And over the course of 15 minutes, 00:01:13.693 --> 00:01:17.206 we watched through hidden cameras what happened. 00:01:17.206 --> 00:01:19.086 And what I want to do today, for the first time, 00:01:19.086 --> 00:01:21.462 is show you a little bit of what we saw. 00:01:21.462 --> 00:01:23.099 You're going to have to pardon the sound quality, 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:24.262 in some cases, because again, 00:01:24.262 --> 00:01:25.750 these were hidden cameras. 00:01:25.750 --> 00:01:27.884 So we've provided subtitles. 00:01:27.884 --> 00:01:29.704 Rich Player: How many 500s did you have? 00:01:29.704 --> 00:01:30.758 Poor Player: Just one. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:30.758 --> 00:01:31.733 Rich Player: Are you serious. Poor Player: Yeah. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:31.733 --> 00:01:33.517 Rich Player: I have three. (Laughs) 00:01:33.517 --> 00:01:35.444 I don't know why they gave me so much. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:35.444 --> 00:01:37.022 Paul Piff: Okay, so it was quickly apparent to players 00:01:37.022 --> 00:01:38.654 that something was up. 00:01:38.654 --> 00:01:40.841 One person clearly has a lot more money 00:01:40.841 --> 00:01:42.760 than the other person, and yet, 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:45.067 as the game unfolded, 00:01:45.067 --> 00:01:47.214 we saw very notable differences 00:01:47.214 --> 00:01:49.572 and dramatic differences begin to emerge 00:01:49.572 --> 00:01:51.399 between the two players. 00:01:51.399 --> 00:01:53.134 The rich player 00:01:53.134 --> 00:01:55.837 started to move around the board louder, 00:01:55.837 --> 00:01:57.578 literally smacking the board with their piece 00:01:57.578 --> 00:02:00.544 as he went around. 00:02:00.544 --> 00:02:03.598 We were more likely to see signs of dominance 00:02:03.598 --> 00:02:05.328 and non-verbal signs of display, 00:02:05.328 --> 00:02:07.410 displays of power 00:02:07.410 --> 00:02:11.442 and celebration among the rich players. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:11.442 --> 00:02:13.978 All right. We had a bowl of pretzels positioned off to the side. 00:02:13.978 --> 00:02:15.808 It's on the bottom right corner there. 00:02:15.808 --> 00:02:19.203 That allowed us to watch participants' consummatory behavior. 00:02:19.203 --> 00:02:22.761 So we're just tracking how many pretzels participants eat. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:22.761 --> 00:02:25.251 Rich Player: Are those pretzels a trick? NOTE Paragraph 00:02:25.251 --> 00:02:27.635 Poor Player: I don't know. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:27.635 --> 00:02:30.822 PP: Okay, so no surprises, people are onto us. 00:02:30.822 --> 00:02:32.402 They wonder what that bowl of pretzels 00:02:32.402 --> 00:02:34.167 is doing there in the first place. 00:02:34.167 --> 00:02:35.911 One even asks, like you just saw, 00:02:35.911 --> 00:02:38.978 is that bowl of pretzels there as a trick? 00:02:38.978 --> 00:02:41.857 And yet, despite that, the power of the situation 00:02:41.857 --> 00:02:44.143 seems to inevitably dominate, 00:02:44.143 --> 00:02:48.457 and those rich players start to eat more pretzels. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:52.317 --> 00:02:54.212 Rich Player: I love pretzels. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:54.212 --> 00:02:56.402 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:58.235 --> 00:03:00.411 PP: And as the game went on, 00:03:00.411 --> 00:03:02.604 one of the really interesting and dramatic patterns 00:03:02.604 --> 00:03:05.879 that we observed begin to emerge 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:07.641 was that the rich players actually 00:03:07.641 --> 00:03:11.078 started to become ruder toward the other person, 00:03:11.078 --> 00:03:12.649 less and less sensitive to the plight 00:03:12.649 --> 00:03:14.678 of those poor, poor players, 00:03:14.678 --> 00:03:16.519 and more and more demonstrative 00:03:16.519 --> 00:03:18.865 of their material success, 00:03:18.865 --> 00:03:22.177 more likely to showcase how well they're doing. 00:03:23.836 --> 00:03:27.931 Rich Player: I have money for everything. 00:03:27.931 --> 00:03:29.934 Poor Player: How much is that? 00:03:29.934 --> 00:03:33.603 Rich Player: You owe me... 24 dollars. 00:03:33.603 --> 00:03:36.475 You're going to lose all your money soon. 00:03:36.475 --> 00:03:38.342 I'll buy it! I have so much money. 00:03:38.342 --> 00:03:40.457 I have so much money, it takes me for ever. 00:03:40.457 --> 00:03:42.448 Rich Player 2: I'm going to buy out this whole board. 00:03:42.448 --> 00:03:44.162 Rich Player 3: You're going to run out of money soon. 00:03:44.162 --> 00:03:46.504 I'm pretty much untouchable at this point. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:46.504 --> 00:03:49.342 PP: Okay, and here's what I think 00:03:49.342 --> 00:03:51.136 was really, really interesting, 00:03:51.136 --> 00:03:54.236 is that at the end of the 15 minutes, 00:03:54.236 --> 00:03:58.023 we asked the players to talk about their experience during the game. 00:03:58.023 --> 00:04:00.751 And when the rich players talked about 00:04:00.751 --> 00:04:02.679 why they had inevitably won 00:04:02.679 --> 00:04:04.559 in this rigged game of Monopoly 00:04:04.559 --> 00:04:09.568 —(Laughter)— 00:04:09.568 --> 00:04:12.578 they talked about what they'd done 00:04:12.578 --> 00:04:15.746 to buy those different properties 00:04:15.746 --> 00:04:18.698 and earn their success in the game, 00:04:18.698 --> 00:04:20.910 and they became far less attuned 00:04:20.910 --> 00:04:23.763 to all those different features of the situation, 00:04:23.763 --> 00:04:26.483 including that flip of a coin 00:04:26.483 --> 00:04:28.661 that had randomly gotten them into 00:04:28.661 --> 00:04:31.771 that privileged position in the first place. 00:04:31.771 --> 00:04:34.425 And that's a really, really incredible insight 00:04:34.425 --> 00:04:40.082 into how the mind makes sense of advantage. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:40.082 --> 00:04:42.116 Now this game of Monopoly can be used 00:04:42.116 --> 00:04:45.079 as a metaphor for understanding society 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.352 and its hierarchical structure, wherein some people 00:04:48.352 --> 00:04:50.528 have a lot of wealth and a lot of status, 00:04:50.528 --> 00:04:52.358 and a lot of people don't. 00:04:52.358 --> 00:04:55.153 They have a lot less wealth and a lot less status 00:04:55.153 --> 00:04:58.328 and a lot less access to valued resources. 00:04:58.328 --> 00:05:01.426 And what my colleagues and I for the last seven years have been doing 00:05:01.426 --> 00:05:05.572 is studying the effects of these kinds of hierarchies. 00:05:05.572 --> 00:05:08.948 What we've been finding across dozens of studies 00:05:08.948 --> 00:05:12.167 and thousands of participants across this country 00:05:12.167 --> 00:05:16.622 is that as a person's levels of wealth increase, 00:05:16.622 --> 00:05:23.012 their feelings of compassion and empathy go down, 00:05:23.012 --> 00:05:26.706 and their feelings of entitlement, of deservingness, 00:05:26.706 --> 00:05:31.224 and their ideology of self-interest increases. 00:05:31.224 --> 00:05:33.343 In surveys, we found that it's actually 00:05:33.343 --> 00:05:35.192 wealthier individuals who are more likely 00:05:35.192 --> 00:05:38.353 to moralize greed being good, 00:05:38.353 --> 00:05:40.157 and that the pursuit of self-interest 00:05:40.157 --> 00:05:42.856 is favorable and moral. 00:05:42.856 --> 00:05:44.737 Now what I want to do today is talk about 00:05:44.737 --> 00:05:49.466 some of the implications of this ideology self-interest, 00:05:49.466 --> 00:05:52.057 talk about why we should care about those implications, 00:05:52.057 --> 00:05:54.995 and end with what might be done. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:54.995 --> 00:05:57.389 Some of the first studies that we ran in this area 00:05:57.389 --> 00:05:59.105 looked at helping behavior, 00:05:59.105 --> 00:06:01.203 something social psychologists call 00:06:01.203 --> 00:06:03.370 pro-social behavior. 00:06:03.370 --> 00:06:05.809 And we were really interested in who's more likely 00:06:05.809 --> 00:06:08.370 to offer help to another person, 00:06:08.370 --> 00:06:11.481 someone who's rich or someone who's poor. 00:06:11.481 --> 00:06:15.991 In one of the studies, we bring in rich and poor 00:06:15.991 --> 00:06:18.275 members of the community into the lab 00:06:18.275 --> 00:06:21.677 and give each of them the equivalent of 10 dollars. 00:06:21.677 --> 00:06:23.489 We told the participants 00:06:23.489 --> 00:06:25.858 that they could keep these 10 dollars for themselves, 00:06:25.858 --> 00:06:27.834 or they could share a portion of it, 00:06:27.834 --> 00:06:29.797 if they wanted to, with a stranger 00:06:29.797 --> 00:06:31.300 who is totally anonymous. 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:34.258 They'll never meet that stranger and the stranger will never meet them. 00:06:34.258 --> 00:06:37.554 And we just monitor how much people give. 00:06:37.554 --> 00:06:39.518 Individuals who made 25, sometimes 00:06:39.518 --> 00:06:41.907 under 15,000 dollars a year, 00:06:41.907 --> 00:06:44.242 gave 44 percent more of their money 00:06:44.242 --> 00:06:45.494 to this stranger 00:06:45.494 --> 00:06:47.680 than did individuals making 150, 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:50.727 200,000 dollars a year. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:50.727 --> 00:06:53.290 We've had people play games 00:06:53.290 --> 00:06:56.445 to see who's more or less likely to cheat 00:06:56.445 --> 00:06:58.899 to increase their chances of winning a prize. 00:06:58.899 --> 00:07:01.573 In one of the games, we actually rigged a computer 00:07:01.573 --> 00:07:04.257 so that die rolls over a certain score 00:07:04.257 --> 00:07:05.381 were impossible. 00:07:05.381 --> 00:07:08.366 You couldn't get above 12 in this game, 00:07:08.366 --> 00:07:11.478 and yet, the richer you were, 00:07:11.478 --> 00:07:13.405 the more likely you were to cheat in this game 00:07:13.405 --> 00:07:17.241 to earn credits toward a $50 cash prize, 00:07:17.241 --> 00:07:20.963 sometimes by three to four times as much. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:20.963 --> 00:07:23.213 We ran another study where we looked at whether 00:07:23.213 --> 00:07:26.219 people would be inclined to take candy 00:07:26.219 --> 00:07:29.111 from a jar of candy that we explicitly identified 00:07:29.111 --> 00:07:31.135 as being reserved for children 00:07:31.135 --> 00:07:34.747 —(Laughter)— 00:07:34.747 --> 00:07:36.464 participating, I'm not kidding, 00:07:36.464 --> 00:07:39.254 I know it sounds like I'm making a joke, 00:07:39.254 --> 00:07:41.328 we explicitly told participants 00:07:41.328 --> 00:07:43.381 this jar of candy's for children participating 00:07:43.381 --> 00:07:45.680 in a developmental lab nearby. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:47.852 They're in studies. This is for them. 00:07:47.852 --> 00:07:51.527 And we just monitored how much candy participants took. 00:07:51.527 --> 00:07:53.047 Participants who felt rich 00:07:53.047 --> 00:07:54.429 took two times as much candy 00:07:54.429 --> 00:07:57.149 as participants who felt poor. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:57.149 --> 00:08:00.277 We've even studied cars, 00:08:00.277 --> 00:08:02.037 not just any cars, 00:08:02.037 --> 00:08:04.919 but whether drivers of different kinds of cars 00:08:04.919 --> 00:08:08.391 are more or less inclined to break the law. 00:08:08.391 --> 00:08:11.069 In one of these studies, we looked at 00:08:11.069 --> 00:08:15.080 whether drivers would stop for a pedestrian 00:08:15.080 --> 00:08:18.079 that we had posed waiting to cross at a crosswalk. 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:19.966 Now in California, as you all know, 00:08:19.966 --> 00:08:22.335 because I'm sure we all do this, 00:08:22.335 --> 00:08:26.371 it's the law to stop for a pedestrian who's waiting to cross. 00:08:26.371 --> 00:08:28.164 So here's an example of how we did it. 00:08:28.164 --> 00:08:30.649 That's our confederate off to the left 00:08:30.649 --> 00:08:31.978 posing as a pedestrian. 00:08:31.978 --> 00:08:36.212 He approaches as the red truck successfully stops. 00:08:36.212 --> 00:08:38.546 In typical California fashion, it's overtaken 00:08:38.546 --> 00:08:40.959 by the bus who almost runs our pedestrian over. 00:08:40.959 --> 00:08:42.454 (Laughter) 00:08:42.454 --> 00:08:44.367 Now here's an example of a more expensive car, 00:08:44.367 --> 00:08:46.182 a Prius, driving through, 00:08:46.182 --> 00:08:50.197 and a BMW doing the same. 00:08:51.620 --> 00:08:53.659 So we did this for hundreds of vehicles 00:08:53.659 --> 00:08:56.475 on several days, 00:08:56.475 --> 00:08:59.195 just tracking who stops and who doesn't. 00:09:00.543 --> 00:09:02.860 What we found was that as the expensiveness 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:07.016 of a car increased, 00:09:07.016 --> 00:09:08.969 the driver's tendencies to break the law 00:09:08.969 --> 00:09:10.212 increased as well. 00:09:10.212 --> 00:09:12.827 None of the cars, none of the cars 00:09:12.827 --> 00:09:15.851 in our least expensive car category 00:09:15.851 --> 00:09:17.692 broke the law. 00:09:17.692 --> 00:09:19.962 Close to 50 percent of the cars 00:09:19.962 --> 00:09:22.217 in our most expensive vehicle category 00:09:22.217 --> 00:09:25.474 broke the law. 00:09:25.474 --> 00:09:27.383 We've run other studies finding that 00:09:27.383 --> 00:09:30.735 wealthier individuals are more likely to lie in negotiations, 00:09:30.735 --> 00:09:32.855 to endorse unethical behavior at work 00:09:32.855 --> 00:09:35.616 like stealing cash from the cash register, 00:09:35.616 --> 00:09:40.607 taking bribes, lying to customers. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:40.607 --> 00:09:42.262 Now I don't mean to suggest 00:09:42.262 --> 00:09:43.857 that it's only wealthy people 00:09:43.857 --> 00:09:45.953 who show these patterns of behavior. 00:09:45.953 --> 00:09:48.707 Not at all. In fact, I think that we all, 00:09:48.707 --> 00:09:51.563 in our day-to-day, minute-by-minute lives, 00:09:51.563 --> 00:09:54.443 struggle with these competing motivations 00:09:54.443 --> 00:09:57.403 of when, or if, to put our own interests 00:09:57.403 --> 00:10:00.232 above the interests of other people. 00:10:00.232 --> 00:10:02.491 And that's understandable because 00:10:02.491 --> 00:10:05.131 the American dream is an idea 00:10:05.131 --> 00:10:08.291 in which we all have an equal opportunity 00:10:08.291 --> 00:10:10.295 to succeed and prosper, 00:10:10.295 --> 00:10:12.591 as long as we apply ourselves and work hard, 00:10:12.591 --> 00:10:15.587 and a piece of that means that sometimes, 00:10:15.587 --> 00:10:18.394 you need to put your own interests 00:10:18.394 --> 00:10:22.007 above the interests and well-being of other people around you. 00:10:22.007 --> 00:10:24.178 But what we're finding is that, 00:10:24.178 --> 00:10:26.677 the wealthier you are, the more likely you are 00:10:26.677 --> 00:10:29.315 to pursue a vision of personal success, 00:10:29.315 --> 00:10:31.642 of achievement and accomplishment, 00:10:31.642 --> 00:10:34.929 to the detriment of others around you. 00:10:34.929 --> 00:10:37.817 Here I've plotted for you the mean household income 00:10:37.817 --> 00:10:41.074 received by each fifth and top five percent of the population 00:10:41.074 --> 00:10:43.402 over the last 20 years. 00:10:43.402 --> 00:10:46.050 In 1993, the differences between the different 00:10:46.050 --> 00:10:49.107 quintiles of the population, in terms of income, 00:10:49.107 --> 00:10:51.642 are fairly egregious. 00:10:51.642 --> 00:10:54.270 It's not difficult to discern that there are differences. 00:10:54.270 --> 00:10:57.138 But over the last 20 years, that significant difference 00:10:57.138 --> 00:10:59.466 has become a grand canyon of sorts 00:10:59.466 --> 00:11:02.620 between those at the top and everyone else. 00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:06.204 In fact, the top 20 percent of our population 00:11:06.204 --> 00:11:09.282 own close to 90 percent of the total wealth in this country. 00:11:09.282 --> 00:11:11.372 We're at unprecedented levels 00:11:11.372 --> 00:11:13.890 of economic inequality. 00:11:15.806 --> 00:11:18.085 What that means is that wealth is not only becoming 00:11:18.085 --> 00:11:22.543 increasingly concentrated in the hands of a select group of individuals, 00:11:22.543 --> 00:11:24.943 but the American dream is becoming 00:11:24.943 --> 00:11:26.953 increasingly unattainable 00:11:26.953 --> 00:11:30.147 for an increasing majority of us. 00:11:30.147 --> 00:11:32.367 And if it's the case, as we've been finding, 00:11:32.367 --> 00:11:34.454 that the wealthier you are, 00:11:34.454 --> 00:11:36.935 the more entitled you feel to that wealth, 00:11:36.935 --> 00:11:39.636 and the more likely you are to prioritize your own interests 00:11:39.636 --> 00:11:41.756 above the interests of other people, 00:11:41.756 --> 00:11:44.930 and be willing to do things to serve that self-interest, 00:11:44.930 --> 00:11:46.989 well then there's no reason to think 00:11:46.989 --> 00:11:49.007 that those patterns will change. 00:11:49.007 --> 00:11:50.767 In fact, there's every reason to think 00:11:50.767 --> 00:11:52.380 that they'll only get worse, 00:11:52.380 --> 00:11:53.783 and that's what it would look like 00:11:53.783 --> 00:11:55.460 if things just stayed the same, 00:11:55.460 --> 00:12:00.100 at the same linear rate, over the next 20 years. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:00.100 --> 00:12:02.853 Now, inequality, economic inequality, 00:12:02.853 --> 00:12:04.917 is something we should all be concerned about, 00:12:04.917 --> 00:12:06.660 and not just because of those at the bottom 00:12:06.660 --> 00:12:08.757 of the social hierarchy, 00:12:08.757 --> 00:12:10.844 but because individuals and groups 00:12:10.844 --> 00:12:16.336 with lots of economic inequality do worse, 00:12:16.336 --> 00:12:19.093 not just the people at the bottom, everyone. 00:12:19.093 --> 00:12:21.078 There's a lot of really compelling research 00:12:21.078 --> 00:12:23.941 coming out from top labs all over the world 00:12:23.941 --> 00:12:26.613 showcasing the range of things 00:12:26.613 --> 00:12:28.517 that are undermined 00:12:28.517 --> 00:12:31.141 as economic inequality gets worse. 00:12:31.141 --> 00:12:33.703 Social mobility, things we really care about, 00:12:33.703 --> 00:12:36.461 physical health, social trust, 00:12:36.461 --> 00:12:39.429 all go down as inequality goes up. 00:12:39.429 --> 00:12:41.428 Similarly, negative things 00:12:41.428 --> 00:12:44.021 in social collectives and societies, 00:12:44.021 --> 00:12:46.196 things like obesity, and violence, 00:12:46.196 --> 00:12:47.725 imprisonment, and punishment, 00:12:47.725 --> 00:12:51.866 are exacerbated as economic inequality increases. 00:12:51.866 --> 00:12:54.384 Again, these our outcomes not just experienced 00:12:54.384 --> 00:12:56.169 by a few, but that resound 00:12:56.169 --> 00:12:59.185 across all strata of society. 00:12:59.185 --> 00:13:02.209 Even people at the top experience these outcomes. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:02.209 --> 00:13:05.236 So what do we do? 00:13:05.236 --> 00:13:08.737 This cascade of self-perpetuating, 00:13:08.737 --> 00:13:11.353 pernicious, negative effects 00:13:11.353 --> 00:13:14.793 could seem like something that's spun out of control, 00:13:14.793 --> 00:13:16.681 and there's nothing we can do about it, 00:13:16.681 --> 00:13:19.291 certainly nothing we as individuals could do. 00:13:19.291 --> 00:13:23.324 But in fact, we've been finding 00:13:23.324 --> 00:13:26.405 in our own laboratory research 00:13:26.405 --> 00:13:31.679 that small, small psychological interventions, 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:34.850 small changes to people's values, 00:13:34.850 --> 00:13:38.150 small nudges in certain directions, 00:13:38.150 --> 00:13:41.669 can restore levels of egalitarianism and empathy. 00:13:41.669 --> 00:13:43.705 For instance, reminding people 00:13:43.705 --> 00:13:45.977 of the benefits of cooperation, 00:13:45.977 --> 00:13:48.865 or the advantages of community, 00:13:48.865 --> 00:13:52.831 cause wealthier individuals to be just as egalitarian 00:13:52.831 --> 00:13:55.320 as poor people. 00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:58.698 In one study, we had people watch a brief video, 00:13:58.698 --> 00:14:03.119 just 46 seconds long, about childhood poverty 00:14:03.119 --> 00:14:06.108 that served as a reminder of the needs of others 00:14:06.108 --> 00:14:08.303 in the world around them, 00:14:08.303 --> 00:14:10.148 and after watching that, 00:14:10.148 --> 00:14:11.862 we looked at how willing people were 00:14:11.862 --> 00:14:15.489 to offer up their own time to a stranger 00:14:15.489 --> 00:14:19.000 presented to them in the lab who was in distress. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:22.236 After watching this video, an hour later, 00:14:22.236 --> 00:14:24.652 rich people became just as generous 00:14:24.652 --> 00:14:26.844 of their own time to help out this other person, 00:14:26.844 --> 00:14:29.348 a stranger, as someone who's poor, 00:14:29.348 --> 00:14:31.644 suggesting that these differences are not 00:14:31.644 --> 00:14:33.681 innate or categorical, 00:14:33.681 --> 00:14:35.344 but are so malleable 00:14:35.344 --> 00:14:37.316 to slight changes in people's values, 00:14:37.316 --> 00:14:39.428 and little nudges of compassion 00:14:39.428 --> 00:14:41.236 and bumps of empathy. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:41.236 --> 00:14:42.948 And beyond the walls of our lab, we're even 00:14:42.948 --> 00:14:46.869 beginning to see signs of change in society. 00:14:46.869 --> 00:14:50.220 Bill Gates, one of our nation's wealthiest individuals, 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:52.015 in his Harvard commencement speech, 00:14:52.015 --> 00:14:54.092 talked about the problem facing society 00:14:54.092 --> 00:14:57.392 of inequality as being the most daunting challenge, 00:14:57.392 --> 00:14:59.988 and talked about what must be done to combat it, 00:14:59.988 --> 00:15:03.301 saying, "Humanity's greatest advances 00:15:03.301 --> 00:15:05.236 are not in its discoveries, 00:15:05.236 --> 00:15:08.541 but in how those discoveries are applied 00:15:08.541 --> 00:15:11.308 to reduce inequity." 00:15:11.308 --> 00:15:13.265 And there's the Giving Pledge, 00:15:13.265 --> 00:15:15.134 in which more than a hundred of our nation's 00:15:15.134 --> 00:15:17.952 wealthiest individuals 00:15:17.952 --> 00:15:21.850 are pledging half of their fortunes to charity. 00:15:21.850 --> 00:15:23.537 And there's the emergence 00:15:23.537 --> 00:15:26.846 of dozens of grassroots movements, 00:15:26.846 --> 00:15:29.411 like We Are The One Percent, 00:15:29.411 --> 00:15:31.489 the Resource Generation, 00:15:31.489 --> 00:15:33.456 or Wealth For Common Good, 00:15:33.456 --> 00:15:36.001 in which the most privileged 00:15:36.001 --> 00:15:37.879 members of the population, 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:40.697 members of the one percent and elsewhere, 00:15:40.697 --> 00:15:42.598 people who are wealthy, 00:15:42.598 --> 00:15:46.091 are using their own economic resources, 00:15:46.091 --> 00:15:50.245 adults and youth alike, that's what's most striking to me, 00:15:50.245 --> 00:15:51.648 leveraging their own privilege, 00:15:51.648 --> 00:15:53.735 their own economic resources, 00:15:53.735 --> 00:15:56.854 to combat inequality 00:15:56.854 --> 00:15:59.886 by advocating for social policies, 00:15:59.886 --> 00:16:01.737 changes in social values, 00:16:01.737 --> 00:16:04.028 and changes in people's behavior, 00:16:04.028 --> 00:16:07.022 that work against their own economic interests 00:16:07.022 --> 00:16:11.446 but that may ultimately restore the American dream. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:11.446 --> 00:16:13.246 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:13.246 --> 00:16:17.246 (Applause)