I find this stuff interesting, but not in any kind of occupy wall street kind of way. Vitus posted a study a while ago about a social class quiz, and then after reading through the criteria concluded (as did I) that it seems like the higher social classes are “not very nice people”……or at least trends that way.
I’d been thinking of it a lot lately as my guitar player grew up in a white collar family, says he doesn’t know and has never really known any blue collar people, and works in the banking industry.
He’s a pretty nice, friendly, laid back guy, but I’d noticed a few things about him I found kind of unique, at least in my dealings.
-Of the 50 or so people who have ever seen my house, he’s the only one who has ever openly criticized it (generally considered rude).
-Has bluntly referred to some of my friends as, “fat,” “trashy,” or “white trash,” but in a manner as if he was just using adjectives like “tall” or “tan.”
-Every time one of his friends or coworkers has come to a show, they have offered criticism to him about our band. Of the 80+ people I’ve had come out to our shows, not a single person has ever said anything remotely resembling criticism. Even when I ask for constructive criticism, its very hard to get it out of them. BTW, this includes engineers, chemists, teachers, and other forms of non blue collar people.
There have also been other comments about what kinds of shows he wants to play, where, etc. that seem to revolve around status.
The point being, there’s this weird sense of elitism, entitlement, and a lack of respect for people he sees as beneath himself.
I recognize the pink font, but I think there’s a bit of compensating going on, too…not sure what its related to. He’s the son of an immigrant, and I’ve heard that sometimes they have identity issues (4 of my cousins are perfectly fine being half Egyptian, but one is over compensating very hard).
He’s actually an excellent guitar player, but has a few weaknesses that the rest of us don’t have, and I’ve noticed that it really bothers him. He was especially intimidated when we had a singer who was professionally trained on the sax. The other two of us thought, “yeah, he’s a great sax player. He’s got talent and he does it for a living.” Our guitar player always thought, “what does he think about me as a musician? He’ll think I’m not worthy!”
Hey! Since you’ve studied this issue, I’d like to read what you think of this study. If this study was posted last Tuesday, I really wouldn’t have taken it seriously.
I’m resisting this study, because I try to avoid generalizations. *But *maybe, the wealthy are working too hard to maintain their lifestyle, which could explain this bad behavior. They’re tired and grumpy.
Truth be told, I have a ton of people I hang out with. The particular group I’m referring to are either musicians, or they go out and watch bands a lot. Without going into detail, a lot of them could easily qualify as white trash. The point isn’t whether or not they are white trash, its that he had no problem saying it to my face without even flinching.
Maybe he is comfortable with who he is to the extent that if his “being honest” upsets you then, who cares. Personally, people who aren’t honest annoy me to the point of just avoiding them. If I say something stupid point it out with a quip, “dude that’s pretty harsh” type of comment.
I’m not sure how much I buy that study. I am not dismissing it, just expressing skepticism regarding the study.
There is no question social class relates heavily to behavior. I am rarely comfortable with people in my same or similar social class and tend not to care much for them.
I often wonder whether my affinity for tattoos is related to the type of people who seem to gravitate towards me when they are showing.
This is an interesting thread. I’m tempted to write an mjuric style all encompassing response, but I’d probably get lost in all the different currents of my own thoughts. I’ll just go one step at a time.
In the video (:41) the exact script in the candy experiment is: “by the way, the candy there is actually for children in another study, but you are welcome to take a few pieces if you want to.” The researcher is then immediately quoted about the “unseemly” behavior of the wealthy: “The wealthy people took twice as much candy from children as the poorer people.” That description is an intentional distortion on the part of the researcher, IMO. My mind naturally wonders “what else is he willing to distort?”
In the video (:41) the exact script in the candy experiment is: “by the way, the candy there is actually for children in another study, but you are welcome to take a few pieces if you want to.” The researcher is then immediately quoted about the “unseemly” behavior of the wealthy: “The wealthy people took twice as much candy from children as the poorer people.” That description is an intentional distortion on the part of the researcher, IMO. My mind naturally wonders “what else is he willing to distort?”
I don’t disagree that there is a specific belief or value that the researchers are adding to the experiment, but it doesn’t change the data. What I typically try to do with research like this is to look directly at the data and try to skip past their personal judgments. The rich people, instead of being greedy, could be “resourceful” or “opportunistic.”
Interestingly, my wife and I were having a discussion about a former manager of mine who is, more or less, a politician with a personal agenda. IOW, he’s not interested in running the group or getting correct answers. He’s interested in making himself look good. Early on in working with him, he criticized me for essentially doing the moral/ethical/right thing. He wanted me to step on people’s toes, take their projects from them, and make myself shine to upper management.
So, to follow the analogy, he would see someone who took less candy has being unambitious. Whether they are greedy or ambitious, they still took more candy that was supposed to be for the children.
