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How you interact with others depicts your social class more than money
Researchers have suggested that social class is more than just how much money you have. It’s also the clothes you wear, the music you like, the school you go to—and has a strong influence on how you interact with others.
According to the authors, people from lower classes have fundamentally different ways of thinking about the world than people in upper classes.
People who come from a lower-class background have to depend more on other people.
“If you don’t have resources and education, you really adapt to the environment, which is more threatening, by turning to other people,” said Dacher Keltner of the University of California-Berkeley, who co-wrote the article with Michael W. Kraus of UC-San Francisco and Paul K. Piff of UC-Berkeley.
“People who grow up in lower-class neighborhoods, as I did, will say,’ There’s always someone there who will take you somewhere, or watch your kid. You’ve just got to lean on people,’” added Keltner.
Wealthier people don’t have to rely on each other as much. This causes differences that show up in psychological studies. People from lower-class backgrounds are better at reading other people’s emotions. They’re more likely to act altruistically.
“They give more and help more. If someone’s in need, they’ll respond,” said Keltner.
When poor people see someone else suffering, they have a physiological response that is missing in people with more resources.
Upper-class people are different, Keltner said.
“What wealth and education and prestige and a higher station in life gives you is the freedom to focus on the self,” added Keltner.
The report has been published in the Current Directions in Psychological Science.
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