Why rich people are more likely to lie, cheat and steal

What is about money that makes people do bad things?

It seems a fair question when the news is dominated by misdeeds of the rich and powerful. The Paul Manafort trialrevealed details of his alleged crimes: defrauding banks out of tens of millions of dollars, evading taxes by stashing huge sums in offshore accounts and using riches earned through unregistered work for foreign governments to buy US$15,000 ostrich and python jackets.

Manafort’s deputy Rick Gates testified about the small fortune he embezzled and spent on his globe-trotting infidelities. Also in the news recently, Rep. Chris Collins was charged with insider trading. Scandals have shown Trump’s cabinet members flouting government rules and ethics for private jet rides, $31,000 dining table sets, $43,000 soundproof booths and questionable business trips abroad.

“To researchers who study wealth and power, it’s dismaying but not surprising because it tracks so closely with our findings. The effect of power is sadly one of the most reliable laws of human behaviour,” said Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who has spent decades studying wealth, power and privilege.

Six years ago, Keltner and Paul Piff published influential innovative experiments that confirmed many of our worst assumptions about the rich and the corrupting power of wealth.

In one experiment, the researchers stationed themselves at a busy intersection with four-way stop signs and tracked the model of every car whose driver cut off others instead of waiting their turn. People driving expensive cars — like a brand new Mercedes — were four times more likely to ignore right-of-way laws than those in cheap cars.

“It told us that there’s something about wealth and privilege that makes you feel like you’re above the law, that allows you to treat others like they don’t exist,” Keltner said.