Does money make you mean? | Paul K. Piff | TEDxMarin
-
0:12 - 0:15It's really an honor
to be at such a distinguished gathering -
0:15 - 0:20and to have the opportunity
to talk to you about some of my research. -
0:20 - 0:22I want you to, for a moment,
-
0:22 - 0:25think about playing a game of Monopoly.
-
0:26 - 0:31Except in this game,
that combination of skill, talent and luck -
0:31 - 0:34that helped earn you success
in games, as in life, -
0:34 - 0:35has been rendered irrelevant,
-
0:35 - 0:38because this game's been rigged,
-
0:38 - 0:39and you've got the upper hand.
-
0:39 - 0:41You've got more money,
-
0:41 - 0:44more opportunities to move
around the board, -
0:44 - 0:46and more access to resources.
-
0:46 - 0:48And as you think about that experience,
-
0:48 - 0:49I want you to ask yourself:
-
0:50 - 0:55How might that experience of being
a privileged player in a rigged game -
0:55 - 0:57change the way you think about yourself
-
0:58 - 1:00and regard that other player?
-
1:02 - 1:05So, we ran a study
on the UC Berkeley campus -
1:05 - 1:07to look at exactly that question.
-
1:07 - 1:11We brought in more than 100 pairs
of strangers into the lab, -
1:12 - 1:13and with the flip of a coin,
-
1:13 - 1:17randomly assigned one of the two
to be a rich player in a rigged game. -
1:17 - 1:19They got two times as much money;
-
1:20 - 1:23when they passed Go,
they collected twice the salary; -
1:24 - 1:26and they got to roll
both dice instead of one, -
1:26 - 1:29so they got to move
around the board a lot more. -
1:29 - 1:30(Laughter)
-
1:31 - 1:32And over the course of 15 minutes,
-
1:32 - 1:35we watched through
hidden cameras what happened. -
1:36 - 1:38What I want to do today,
for the first time, -
1:38 - 1:40is show you a little bit of what we saw.
-
1:40 - 1:43You'll to have to pardon
the sound quality, -
1:43 - 1:45because again, these were hidden cameras.
-
1:45 - 1:46So we've provided subtitles.
-
1:47 - 1:49[Video] Rich Player: How many
500s did you have? -
1:49 - 1:50Poor Player: Just one.
-
1:50 - 1:52RP: Are you serious?
PP: Yeah. -
1:52 - 1:55RP: I have three. (Laughs)
I don't know why they gave me so much. -
1:55 - 1:58Paul Piff: So it was quickly apparent
to players that something was up. -
1:58 - 2:01One person clearly has
a lot more money than the other person, -
2:01 - 2:04and yet, as the game unfolded,
-
2:04 - 2:08we saw very notable differences,
dramatic differences begin to emerge -
2:08 - 2:10between the two players.
-
2:10 - 2:15The rich player started to move
around the board louder, -
2:15 - 2:18literally smacking the board
with the piece as he went around. -
2:18 - 2:19(Game piece smacks board)
-
2:19 - 2:22We were more likely
to see signs of dominance -
2:22 - 2:26and nonverbal signs, displays of power
-
2:26 - 2:29and celebration among the rich players.
-
2:30 - 2:33We had a bowl of pretzels
positioned off to the side. -
2:33 - 2:34It's on the bottom right corner.
-
2:34 - 2:38That allowed us to watch
participants' consummatory behavior. -
2:38 - 2:41So we're just tracking
how many pretzels participants eat. -
2:42 - 2:44[Video] RP: Are those pretzels a trick?
-
2:44 - 2:46PP: I don't know.
-
2:46 - 2:50Paul Piff: OK, so no surprises,
people are on to us. -
2:50 - 2:53They wonder what that bowl of pretzels
is doing there in the first place. -
2:53 - 2:55One even asks, like you just saw,
-
2:55 - 2:57"Is that bowl of pretzels
there as a trick?" -
2:58 - 3:01And yet, despite that,
the power of the situation -
3:01 - 3:03seems to inevitably dominate,
-
3:03 - 3:06and those rich players
start to eat more pretzels. -
3:06 - 3:07(Laughter)
-
3:11 - 3:12[Video] RP: I love pretzels.
-
3:12 - 3:14(Laughter)
-
3:17 - 3:19Paul Piff: And as the game went on,
-
3:19 - 3:22one of the really interesting
and dramatic patterns -
3:22 - 3:24that we observed begin to emerge
-
3:25 - 3:28was that the rich players
actually started to become ruder -
3:28 - 3:29toward the other person --
-
3:30 - 3:33less and less sensitive to the plight
of those poor, poor players, -
3:33 - 3:37and more and more demonstrative
of their material success, -
3:38 - 3:40more likely to showcase
how well they're doing. -
3:43 - 3:44[Video] RP: I have money ...
-
3:44 - 3:46(Laughs) I have money for everything.
-
3:47 - 3:48PP: How much is that?
-
3:48 - 3:50RP: You owe me 24 dollars.
-
3:52 - 3:55You're going to lose all your money soon.
-
3:55 - 3:57I'll buy it. I have so much money.
-
3:57 - 3:59I have so much money, it takes me forever.
-
3:59 - 4:01RP 2: I'm going
to buy out this whole board. -
4:01 - 4:03RP 3: You're going
to run out of money soon. -
4:03 - 4:05I'm pretty much untouchable at this point.
-
4:05 - 4:07(Laughter)
-
4:07 - 4:10Paul Piff: And here's what I think
was really, really interesting: -
4:10 - 4:12it's that, at the end of the 15 minutes,
-
4:13 - 4:16we asked the players to talk
about their experience during the game. -
4:17 - 4:21And when the rich players talked
about why they had inevitably won -
4:21 - 4:23in this rigged game of Monopoly ...
-
4:23 - 4:27(Laughter)
-
4:28 - 4:35They talked about what they'd done
to buy those different properties -
4:35 - 4:37and earn their success in the game.
-
4:37 - 4:38(Laughter)
-
4:38 - 4:40And they became far less attuned
-
4:40 - 4:43to all those different
features of the situation -- -
4:43 - 4:45including that flip of a coin --
-
4:45 - 4:49that had randomly gotten them
into that privileged position -
4:49 - 4:51in the first place.
-
4:51 - 4:53And that's a really,
really incredible insight -
4:53 - 4:57into how the mind
makes sense of advantage. -
4:59 - 5:01Now, this game of Monopoly can be used
-
5:01 - 5:06as a metaphor for understanding society
and its hierarchical structure, -
5:06 - 5:10wherein some people
have a lot of wealth and a lot of status, -
5:10 - 5:11and a lot of people don't;
-
5:11 - 5:14they have a lot less wealth
and a lot less status -
5:14 - 5:17and a lot less access to valued resources.
-
5:17 - 5:21And what my colleagues and I
for the last seven years have been doing -
5:21 - 5:23is studying the effects
of these kinds of hierarchies. -
5:24 - 5:28What we've been finding
across dozens of studies -
5:28 - 5:31and thousands of participants
across this country -
5:31 - 5:35is that as a person's levels
of wealth increase, -
5:36 - 5:40their feelings of compassion
and empathy go down, -
5:42 - 5:45and their feelings of entitlement,
of deservingness, -
5:45 - 5:49and their ideology
of self-interest increase. -
5:50 - 5:52In surveys, we've found
-
5:52 - 5:55that it's actually wealthier individuals
who are more likely to moralize -
5:55 - 5:57greed being good,
-
5:57 - 6:01and that the pursuit of self-interest
is favorable and moral. -
6:02 - 6:05Now, what I want to do today
is talk about some of the implications -
6:05 - 6:07of this ideology self-interest,
-
6:08 - 6:11talk about why we should
care about those implications, -
6:11 - 6:13and end with what might be done.
-
6:14 - 6:17Some of the first studies
that we ran in this area -
6:17 - 6:18looked at helping behavior,
-
6:18 - 6:21something social psychologists
call "pro-social behavior." -
6:22 - 6:24And we were really interested
-
6:24 - 6:27in who's more likely
to offer help to another person: -
6:27 - 6:29someone who's rich or someone who's poor.
-
6:30 - 6:32In one of the studies,
-
6:32 - 6:37we bring rich and poor members
of the community into the lab, -
6:37 - 6:40and give each of them
the equivalent of 10 dollars. -
6:40 - 6:45We told the participants they could keep
these 10 dollars for themselves, -
6:45 - 6:48or they could share
a portion of it, if they wanted to, -
6:48 - 6:50with a stranger, who's totally anonymous.
-
6:50 - 6:53They'll never meet that stranger;
the stranger will never meet them. -
6:53 - 6:56And we just monitor how much people give.
-
6:56 - 7:01Individuals who made 25,000,
sometimes under 15,000 dollars a year, -
7:01 - 7:04gave 44 percent more
of their money to the stranger -
7:04 - 7:08than did individuals making
150,000, 200,000 dollars a year. -
7:10 - 7:12We've had people play games
-
7:13 - 7:15to see who's more or less likely to cheat
-
7:15 - 7:18to increase their chances
of winning a prize. -
7:18 - 7:20In one of the games,
we actually rigged a computer -
7:20 - 7:24so that die rolls over a certain score
were impossible -- -
7:24 - 7:28You couldn't get above 12
in this game, and yet ... -
7:29 - 7:32the richer you were, the more likely
you were to cheat in this game -
7:32 - 7:35to earn credits toward a $50 cash prize --
-
7:36 - 7:38sometimes by three to four times as much.
-
7:40 - 7:41We ran another study
-
7:41 - 7:45where we looked at whether people
would be inclined to take candy -
7:45 - 7:48from a jar of candy
that we explicitly identified -
7:48 - 7:50as being reserved for children --
-
7:50 - 7:53(Laughter)
-
7:53 - 7:54Participating -
-
7:54 - 7:58I'm not kidding -- I know it sounds
like I'm making a joke. -
7:58 - 8:00We explicitly told participants:
-
8:00 - 8:05"This candy is for children participating
in a developmental lab nearby. -
8:05 - 8:07They're in studies. This is for them."
-
8:07 - 8:10And we just monitored
how much candy participants took. -
8:10 - 8:13Participants who felt rich
took two times as much candy -
8:13 - 8:15as participants who felt poor.
-
8:16 - 8:18We've even studied cars.
-
8:19 - 8:21Not just any cars,
-
8:21 - 8:24but whether drivers
of different kinds of cars -
8:24 - 8:27are more or less inclined
to break the law. -
8:27 - 8:29In one of these studies,
-
8:29 - 8:34we looked at whether drivers
would stop for a pedestrian -
8:34 - 8:37that we had posed waiting
to cross at a crosswalk. -
8:37 - 8:39Now in California, as you all know,
-
8:39 - 8:41because I'm sure we all do this,
-
8:41 - 8:45it's the law to stop for a pedestrian
who's waiting to cross. -
8:45 - 8:47So here's an example of how we did it.
-
8:47 - 8:51That's our confederate off to the left,
posing as a pedestrian. -
8:51 - 8:55He approaches as the red truck
successfully stops. -
8:55 - 8:57In typical California fashion,
-
8:57 - 9:00it's overtaken by the bus
who almost runs our pedestrian over. -
9:00 - 9:01(Laughter)
-
9:01 - 9:03Now here's an example
of a more expensive car, -
9:03 - 9:08a Prius, driving through,
and a BMW doing the same. -
9:10 - 9:13So we did this for hundreds of vehicles
-
9:13 - 9:15on several days,
-
9:15 - 9:18just tracking who stops and who doesn't.
-
9:19 - 9:24What we found was as the expensiveness
of a car increased ... -
9:24 - 9:26(Laughter)
-
9:26 - 9:29the drivers' tendencies
to break the law increased as well. -
9:29 - 9:32None of the cars -- none of the cars --
-
9:32 - 9:35in our least expensive car category
-
9:35 - 9:36broke the law.
-
9:36 - 9:41Close to 50 percent of the cars
in our most expensive vehicle category -
9:41 - 9:43broke the law.
-
9:44 - 9:45We've run other studies,
-
9:46 - 9:49finding that wealthier individuals
are more likely to lie in negotiations, -
9:49 - 9:52to endorse unethical behavior at work,
-
9:52 - 9:54like stealing cash from the cash register,
-
9:54 - 9:57taking bribes, lying to customers.
-
9:59 - 10:01Now, I don't mean to suggest
-
10:01 - 10:05that it's only wealthy people
who show these patterns of behavior. -
10:05 - 10:07Not at all -- in fact,
I think that we all, -
10:07 - 10:10in our day-to-day, minute-by-minute lives,
-
10:10 - 10:13struggle with these competing motivations
-
10:13 - 10:19of when or if to put our own interests
above the interests of other people. -
10:19 - 10:21And that's understandable,
-
10:21 - 10:24because the American dream is an idea
-
10:24 - 10:29in which we all have an equal opportunity
to succeed and prosper, -
10:29 - 10:32as long as we apply
ourselves and work hard. -
10:32 - 10:34And a piece of that means that sometimes,
-
10:34 - 10:37you need to put your own interests
-
10:37 - 10:41above the interests and well-being
of other people around you. -
10:41 - 10:44But what we're finding
is that the wealthier you are, -
10:44 - 10:48the more likely you are to pursue
a vision of personal success, -
10:48 - 10:50of achievement and accomplishment,
-
10:50 - 10:53to the detriment of others around you.
-
10:55 - 10:59Here I've plotted for you
the mean household income -
10:59 - 11:02received by each fifth
and top five percent of the population -
11:02 - 11:04over the last 20 years.
-
11:05 - 11:06In 1993,
-
11:06 - 11:09the differences between the different
quintiles of the population, -
11:09 - 11:10in terms of income,
-
11:10 - 11:12are fairly egregious.
-
11:13 - 11:15It's not difficult to discern
that there are differences. -
11:15 - 11:18But over the last 20 years,
that significant difference -
11:18 - 11:21has become a Grand Canyon of sorts
-
11:21 - 11:24between those at the top
and everyone else. -
11:24 - 11:27In fact, the top 20 percent
of our population -
11:27 - 11:30own close to 90 percent
of the total wealth in this country. -
11:30 - 11:34We're at unprecedented levels
of economic inequality. -
11:37 - 11:41What that means is that wealth is not only
becoming increasingly concentrated -
11:41 - 11:44in the hands of a select group
of individuals, -
11:44 - 11:48but the American dream
is becoming increasingly unattainable -
11:48 - 11:50for an increasing majority of us.
-
11:51 - 11:54And if it's the case,
as we've been finding, -
11:54 - 11:55that the wealthier you are,
-
11:56 - 11:58the more entitled you feel to that wealth,
-
11:58 - 12:01and the more likely you are
to prioritize your own interests -
12:01 - 12:03above the interests of other people,
-
12:03 - 12:06and be willing to do things
to serve that self-interest, -
12:06 - 12:10well, then, there's no reason to think
that those patterns will change. -
12:10 - 12:14In fact, there's every reason
to think that they'll only get worse, -
12:14 - 12:17and that's what it would look like
if things just stayed the same, -
12:17 - 12:20at the same linear rate,
over the next 20 years. -
12:21 - 12:24Now inequality -- economic inequality --
-
12:24 - 12:26is something we should
all be concerned about, -
12:26 - 12:30and not just because of those
at the bottom of the social hierarchy, -
12:30 - 12:32but because individuals and groups
-
12:32 - 12:37with lots of economic
inequality do worse ... -
12:37 - 12:40not just the people
at the bottom, everyone. -
12:40 - 12:42There's a lot of really
compelling research -
12:42 - 12:45coming out from top labs
all over the world, -
12:45 - 12:50showcasing the range of things
that are undermined -
12:50 - 12:52as economic inequality gets worse.
-
12:52 - 12:55Social mobility,
things we really care about, -
12:55 - 12:58physical health, social trust,
-
12:58 - 13:00all go down as inequality goes up.
-
13:00 - 13:05Similarly, negative things
in social collectives and societies, -
13:05 - 13:07things like obesity, and violence,
-
13:07 - 13:09imprisonment, and punishment,
-
13:09 - 13:13are exacerbated as economic
inequality increases. -
13:13 - 13:16Again, these are outcomes
not just experienced by a few, -
13:16 - 13:20but that resound
across all strata of society. -
13:20 - 13:23Even people at the top
experience these outcomes. -
13:25 - 13:27So what do we do?
-
13:29 - 13:33This cascade of self-perpetuating,
-
13:33 - 13:35pernicious, negative effects
-
13:35 - 13:39could seem like something
that's spun out of control, -
13:39 - 13:41and there's nothing we can do about it,
-
13:41 - 13:43certainly nothing
we as individuals could do. -
13:44 - 13:50But in fact, we've been finding
in our own laboratory research -
13:51 - 13:56that small psychological interventions,
-
13:56 - 13:59small changes to people's values,
-
13:59 - 14:03small nudges in certain directions,
-
14:03 - 14:06can restore levels
of egalitarianism and empathy. -
14:06 - 14:10For instance, reminding people
of the benefits of cooperation -
14:11 - 14:13or the advantages of community,
-
14:14 - 14:18cause wealthier individuals
to be just as egalitarian -
14:18 - 14:19as poor people.
-
14:20 - 14:26In one study, we had people watch
a brief video, just 46 seconds long, -
14:26 - 14:27about childhood poverty
-
14:28 - 14:32that served as a reminder of the needs
of others in the world around them. -
14:33 - 14:35And after watching that,
-
14:35 - 14:38we looked at how willing people
were to offer up their own time -
14:39 - 14:43to a stranger presented to them
in the lab, who was in distress. -
14:44 - 14:47After watching this video, an hour later,
-
14:47 - 14:50rich people became
just as generous of their own time -
14:50 - 14:53to help out this other person, a stranger,
-
14:53 - 14:54as someone who's poor,
-
14:54 - 14:58suggesting that these differences
are not innate or categorical, -
14:58 - 15:02but are so malleable
to slight changes in people's values, -
15:02 - 15:06and little nudges of compassion
and bumps of empathy. -
15:07 - 15:08And beyond the walls of our lab,
-
15:08 - 15:12we're even beginning to see
signs of change in society. -
15:12 - 15:16Bill Gates, one of our nation's
wealthiest individuals, -
15:16 - 15:18in his Harvard commencement speech,
-
15:18 - 15:21talked about the problem
of inequality facing society -
15:21 - 15:24as being the most daunting challenge,
-
15:24 - 15:27and talked about what must
be done to combat it, -
15:27 - 15:32saying, "Humanity's greatest advances
are not in its discoveries -- -
15:32 - 15:35but in how those discoveries are applied
-
15:35 - 15:37to reduce inequity."
-
15:37 - 15:39And there's the Giving Pledge,
-
15:39 - 15:43in which more than 100
of our nation's wealthiest individuals -
15:44 - 15:47are pledging half
of their fortunes to charity. -
15:48 - 15:52And there's the emergence of dozens
of grassroots movements, -
15:53 - 15:55like "We are the 1 percent,"
-
15:56 - 15:57"Resource Generation,"
-
15:58 - 16:00or "Wealth for Common Good,"
-
16:00 - 16:04in which the most privileged
members of the population, -
16:04 - 16:07members of the one percent and elsewhere,
-
16:07 - 16:09people who are wealthy,
-
16:09 - 16:13are using their own economic resources,
-
16:13 - 16:17adults and youth alike --
that's what's most striking to me -- -
16:17 - 16:21leveraging their own privilege,
their own economic resources, -
16:21 - 16:24to combat inequality
-
16:24 - 16:26by advocating for social policies,
-
16:27 - 16:29changes in social values
-
16:29 - 16:31and changes in people's behavior
-
16:31 - 16:34that work against
their own economic interests, -
16:34 - 16:37but that may ultimately
restore the American dream. -
16:38 - 16:39Thank you.
-
16:39 - 16:45(Applause)
- Title:
- Does money make you mean? | Paul K. Piff | TEDxMarin
- Description:
-
The Science of Greed : Why the Ideology of self interest could be the downfall of the American Dream. Wealth may seem like mostly an unmitigated good, yet it also has significant costs. My research reveals the pernicious effects of inequality and why something must be done about them...before it's too late.
Paul K. Piff is a social psychologist and research scientist in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from Reed College and a Ph.D. in Psychology from UC Berkeley.In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 16:53
![]() |
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for The science of greed: Paul K. Piff at TEDxMarin 2013 | |
![]() |
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for The science of greed: Paul K. Piff at TEDxMarin 2013 |