The Effects Of Wealth On Personal And Social Psychology

Dr. Paul K. Piff is a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2013 he gave one of the most popular TED Talks ever, on the topic of the effects of wealth on personal and social psychology. The video is most amusingly titled, â€Å"Does money make you mean?† The central claim of the video is that the idea of the American dream revolves around having to place personal desires over those of the general population, resulting in income inequality, and the various plights of said result. In many ways then, this videos central claim becomes ‘is the American dream ethical?’ Piff goes onto discuss how the psychological ailments that come with living a privileged life can be reversed or prevented through the power of suggestion. The results of this can be seen through various examples of the top one percent, such as Bill Gates, deciding to donate large portions of their wealth for the good of the world. The talk features the citation of over six studies. The most central of these studies is a study Piff opened his TED Talk with. Piff ran an experiment which was meant to gauge how a person’s behavior changes in regards to social interaction and food consumption, when one individual is obviously superior in wealth and advantage in comparison to another. To facilitate this on a smaller scale, he ran a true experiment which acted as a metaphor for society as a whole. He had 100 pairs of strangers play a game of Monopoly. The experiment was runShow MoreRelatedSocial Psychology Current Events1003 Words   |  5 PagesChristen See Social Psychology: The Economic Recession According to the financial definition, a recession is a significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting longer than a few months. It is visible in industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale-retail trade. 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