Are the Rich Really More Selfish and Mean Than Everyone Else?

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A few weeks ago, the millionaire Polish CEO Piotr Szczerek made headlines when he snatched a signed cap from a child at the American Open tennis tournament. A social media backlash followed, which threatened Szczerek’s business interests, prompting an apology.

Is it strange that a wealthy businessman should behave with such apparent pettiness and meanness? In fact, research has found a clear link between wealth and unethical behaviour, including an increased tendency to cheat and steal.¹ One study found that wealthy, upper-class people were more likely to be selfishly focused on their interests, excluding others from their concern.² Conversely, another study found that people from lower social classes were more likely to feel compassion for other people’s suffering. ³

Researchers have even established that drivers of expensive cars are less likely to behave altruistically than other drivers. They are less likely to slow down to let pedestrians cross or to let other drivers join the road. They are also more likely to drive aggressively and disobey traffic rules. One study found that the likelihood of the drivers slowing down to let pedestrians cross the road decreased by 3 percent for every $1,000 that their car was worth.⁴

Dark Triad personalities

In simple terms, it seems that rich people are more likely to be mean and less likely to be altruistic. What could explain this link? Perhaps wealth turns people bad, isolating them from others and making them more selfish. Or is it that people who are already ruthless and selfish are more likely to become extremely wealthy?

One way of clarifying this is to think in terms of what psychologists refer to as dark triad personalities. These are people who have combined traits of psychopathy, narcissism, and machiavellianism. These traits—which all involve selfishness and low empathy—almost always overlap and can be difficult to distinguish from one another.

Research shows that dark triad personalities tend to possess higher levels of status and wealth. A study following participants for 15 years found that people with dark triad traits gravitated towards the top of the organisational hierarchy and were wealthier.⁵ In line with those findings, according to some estimates, the base rate for clinical levels of psychopathy is three times higher among corporate boards than in the general population.⁶ Research also indicates that young people with dark triad traits are more highly represented on business courses at university or college.⁷

Why do mean people seek wealth?

In my view, the correlation between wealth and nastiness is quite easy to explain. In my book DisConnected, I suggest that some people experience a state of intense psychological separation. Their psychological boundaries are so strong that they feel disconnected from other people and the world, which creates a lack of empathy and emotional connection. One effect of this state of disconnection is a sense of psychological lack. People feel incomplete, as if something is missing. In turn, this generates an impulse to accumulate wealth, status, and power as a way of compensating. On the flip side, people who feel a sense of connection to others and to the world don’t feel a sense of incompleteness and so don’t tend to have a strong desire for power or wealth.

At the same time, a lack of empathy can make it easier to attain success. It means you can be ruthless in your pursuit of wealth and status, manipulating and exploiting others. If other people suffer as the result of your actions—and lose their livelihood or reputation—it doesn’t concern you. Without empathy, you can’t sense the suffering you cause.

So psychological disconnection has two disastrous effects: it generates a strong desire for wealth and status, together with the ruthlessness that makes wealth and success easily attainable.

Wealth and well-being

Of course, I’m not claiming that all wealthy people are mean. Some people become wealthy by accident, or because they have brilliant ideas, or even because they want to use their wealth to benefit others. But given the factors described above, it is not surprising that there is a high incidence of meanness among the wealthy.

A great deal of research in psychology has shown only a weak correlation between wealth and well-being. A famous 2010 study by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton found that happiness increased in line with income up to around US$75,000 a year (equivalent to $110,000 in 2025). However, this is where the correlation ended. According to the study, after $110,000 a year, it doesn’t matter how rich you become; it won’t make you any happier.⁸ Moreover, another study by Kahneman and other colleagues found that, for people who were preoccupied with striving for financial success, life satisfaction actually decreased as income increased.⁹

Dark Triad Essential Reads

Why Harsh Environments Breed Darker Personalities

4 Reasons to Ditch the "Dark Triad" Label

Overall, evidence suggests that wealthy people are unlikely to attain the contentment they seek through money alone. Their wealth and status don’t take away their sense of incompleteness.

This might be another reason why extremely rich people tend to act unethically—as their sense of disconnection grows stronger. In contrast, research shows a very strong link between altruism and well-being.¹⁰ So perhaps that is where we should focus our attention - not on becoming rich, but on becoming kind.

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