Social Status and Unethical Behavior: Two Replications of the Field Studies in Piff et al. (2012)

Prominent social psychologists and major media outlets have put forward the notion that people of high socioeconomic status (SES) are more selfish and behave more unethically than people of low SES. In contrast, other research in economics and sociology has hypothesized and found a positive relationship between SES and prosocial and ethical behavior. We review the empirical evidence for these contradictory findings and conduct two direct, well-powered, and preregistered replications of the field studies by Piff and colleagues (2012) to test the relationship between SES and unethical/selfish behavior. Unlike the original findings, we find no evidence of a positive relationship between SES and unethical/selfish behavior in the two field replication studies.

Automated summary

This study reviews the contradictory findings regarding the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and unethical/selfish behavior. Through two direct, well-powered, and preregistered field replication studies, it finds no evidence of a positive relationship between SES and unethical/selfish behavior, contradicting previous research.