STUDY: The Wealthier One is, the more Entitled They Feel

Paul Piff, a social psychologist of human behavior at University of California-Berkeley, studies how social hierarchy, inequality and emotion shape relations between individuals and groups.

What can a game of Monopoly tell us about how wealth's concentration poisons our interpersonal relations?

Paul Piff describes what happened when researchers at his lab rigged games of Monopoly to privilege some players over others (like our tax code). This and similar experiments, Piff notes, demonstrate that “the wealthier you are, the more entitled you feel.”

It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal. In this entertaining but sobering talk, Paul Piff shares his research into how people behave when they feel wealthy. (Hint: badly.)

A TED Talk Video --- link here