There’s a growing body of research from behavioral neuroscience which indicate that wealth, power, and privilege have a deleterious effect on the brain. People with high-socioeconomic status often:
Have reduced empathy and compassion.
Have a diminished ability to see from someone else’s perspective.
Have low impulse control.
Have an extreme sense of entitlement.
Have a hoarding disorder.
Have a dangerously high tolerance for risk.
When you don’t need to cooperate with other people to survive, they become irrelevant to you. When you’re in charge, you can behave very badly and people will still be polite and respectful toward you. Instead of reciprocity, it’s a formalized double standard. When you have status, you’re given excessive credibility, and rarely hear the very ordinary push-back from others most of us are accustomed to, instead you receive flattery and praise and your ideas are taken seriously by default.
Humans have a strong need for egalitarianism; without it our brains malfunction and turn us into the worst versions of ourselves.
Some sources:
Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years
Just a quick reply - haven’t read your sources yet. But I also feel like it works both ways, one’s lack of empathy helps you succeed in a capitalist culture that only has one metric for success, money. Will now start reading ;).
I agree with the underlying concept, that having low/no empathy is rewarded under the current capitalist systems that most first world countries endorse.
The conflict I have with that mentality, which drives me, personally, away from it, is that if you go back in the history books, we only survived some eras because of strong communal bonds and collaboration with our tribe. In every circumstance, collaboration has been more beneficial economically, than any other option.
Therefore, I reject the selfish capitalist ideals and embrace empathy for the sake of humanity and my role in it.
We are still thriving creating great things because we collaborate on a large level. It might not be that communal anymore (unfortunately), but working together is still the key to success (in a system way).
It would be beneficial for all, if we could bring back the communal part - while still holding on to some of the benefits the modern global system has produced. I just always wonder, how do you replace or compete with the ice cold global capitalist systems, that can win most of the time in the short term and just overwhelm any sustainable, communal long term system.
That literally sounds like the local rich kid that was a bully but then got a DUI and killed someone but because his parents are rich didn’t even serve a day.
From the APA’s “Journal of Experimental Psychology”:
“Empathy is hard work: People choose to avoid empathy because of its cognitive costs” (2019)
(Abstract) or (Full Text PDF)
Further reading on this subject:
“How resource sharing resists scarcity: the role of cognitive empathy and its neurobiological mechanisms” (2022)
(Full Text)
“Empathy moderates the relationship between cognitive load and prosocial behaviour” (2023)
(Full Text)
“Cognitive load and moral decision-making in moral dilemmas under virtual reality: the role of empathy for pain” (2025)
(Abstract)
“The Influence of Cognitive Load on Empathy and Intention in Response to Infant Crying” (2016)
(Full Text)
There’s a growing body of research from behavioral neuroscience which indicate that wealth, power, and privilege have a deleterious effect on the brain. People with high-socioeconomic status often:
When you don’t need to cooperate with other people to survive, they become irrelevant to you. When you’re in charge, you can behave very badly and people will still be polite and respectful toward you. Instead of reciprocity, it’s a formalized double standard. When you have status, you’re given excessive credibility, and rarely hear the very ordinary push-back from others most of us are accustomed to, instead you receive flattery and praise and your ideas are taken seriously by default.
Humans have a strong need for egalitarianism; without it our brains malfunction and turn us into the worst versions of ourselves.
Some sources:
Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years
(Abstract) or (Full Text)
Does power corrupt? An fMRI study on the effect of power and social value orientation on inequity aversion.
(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)
Social Class and the Motivational Relevance of Other Human Beings: Evidence From Visual Attention
(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)
The Psychology of Entrenched Privilege: High Socioeconomic Status Individuals From Affluent Backgrounds Are Uniquely High in Entitlement
(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)
Hoarding Disorder: It’s More Than Just an Obsession - Implications for Financial Therapists and Planners
(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)
On the evolution of hoarding, risk-taking, and wealth distribution in nonhuman and human populations
(Abstract) or (Full Text)
Just a quick reply - haven’t read your sources yet. But I also feel like it works both ways, one’s lack of empathy helps you succeed in a capitalist culture that only has one metric for success, money. Will now start reading ;).
I agree with the underlying concept, that having low/no empathy is rewarded under the current capitalist systems that most first world countries endorse.
The conflict I have with that mentality, which drives me, personally, away from it, is that if you go back in the history books, we only survived some eras because of strong communal bonds and collaboration with our tribe. In every circumstance, collaboration has been more beneficial economically, than any other option.
Therefore, I reject the selfish capitalist ideals and embrace empathy for the sake of humanity and my role in it.
I’ll note, I am neither rich, nor American.
We are still
thrivingcreating great things because we collaborate on a large level. It might not be that communal anymore (unfortunately), but working together is still the key to success (in a system way).It would be beneficial for all, if we could bring back the communal part - while still holding on to some of the benefits the modern global system has produced. I just always wonder, how do you replace or compete with the ice cold global capitalist systems, that can win most of the time in the short term and just overwhelm any sustainable, communal long term system.
That’s the trick, isn’t it?
Make a thing that helps collaboration that people buy into for long term survival, sacrificing what “could be” to hopefully achieve a better tomorrow…
Nobody has successfully achieved this yet.
Thank you! Needed this so badly!
That literally sounds like the local rich kid that was a bully but then got a DUI and killed someone but because his parents are rich didn’t even serve a day.
Aren’t those signs of sociopathy?
I think we need to forbid people who qualify as sociopaths from holding any office with any degree of power. They can’t be trusted with power.
Wealth accumulation as a mental disorder makes so much goddamn sense.