Several studies have shown that wealth may be at odds with empathy and compassion. Research published in the journal Psychological Science found that people of lower economic status were better at reading others' facial expressions—an important marker of empathy—than wealthier people.
We've been finding across dozens of studies and thousands of participants across this country that as a person's level of wealth increases, their feelings of compassion and empathy go down. And their feelings of entitlement, of deservingness, and their ideology of self-interest increases.
Significant Wealth Makes People Less Empathetic and Compassionate. According to researcher Jennifer Stellar, lead author at the University of California-Berkeley, people who grew up in economically comfortable circumstances are less attuned to the suffering of other people.
They can no longer empathize. Psychologists have long observed that high-power individuals tend to be less sensitive to the emotions of others than those with low power. They are less willing to consider others' perspectives. They are less able to accurately infer others' emotions.
In one study, they found that less affluent individuals are more likely to report feeling compassion towards others on a regular basis.
Two psychological terms particularly associated with a lack of empathy are sociopathy and psychopathy. Psychopathy, which comes from the Greek roots psykhe, which refers to the mind, and pathos, which means suffering, has shifted in popular meaning over the years, but it has always been associated with mind sickness.
If someone lacks empathy, they're someone who has trouble putting themselves in other people's shoes. When people lack empathy, simply put, they don't empathize with other people's feelings. When people seem to lack empathy, they may come off as insensitive or uncaring.
Psychologists remind us that even though human beings are social creatures and mirror neurons are part of the hardwiring of every person's brain, “empathy doesn't come naturally to all of us.” And there are also sometimes clinical reasons someone lacks empathy — specifically, psychopaths and individuals with autism ...
Fear of discomfort. Being empathic involves entering the 'emotional zone', which can be an uncomfortable experience. Some leaders are not comfortable dealing with emotions in themselves, let alone in others.
There's scientific research to back up the notion that Americans are caring less and less for others. For instance, one study found a steep decline in empathy among young people from 1979 to 2009. One of the authors of that study is joining me today.
Piff of the UC-Berkely found people from lower classes were better at reading other people's emotions, which is one scientific measure of empathy.
The construction of the prototypical personality profile of the rich regarding the Big Five and risk-taking was informed by previous research that found wealthy individuals to score higher on Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness, and Narcissism, as well as scoring lower on Neuroticism and Agreeableness (Leckelt et ...
The impact of wealth on mental health
Behind many wealthy lifestyles lies suffering, pain, childhood trauma, addiction, and depressive states. Riches may provide for a privileged education and upbringing, but children in vastly wealthy families often grow up feeling isolated and unloved.
Their findings indicated that, on average, those with higher incomes spent more time alone and less time interacting with others. Those with greater incomes also spent less time with their families and more time with friends when they did socialize.
This insecurity about wealth among the wealthy might come from a poor sense of self-worth, or an underlying sense of shame or feeling of being undeserving or incapable of owning so much wealth. Financial insecurity among the wealthy is now diagnosed and treated as a mental illness.
And it turns out that when they're in a higher social class, they also have a greater sense of entitlement. The researchers found that people in higher social classes tended to agree with statements like “I honestly feel I'm just more deserving than others” when they had high levels of system-justifying belief.
Kevin Cashman
According to a new annual survey of 3,000 HR professionals, fully one-third do not find their CEO to be empathetic, a 16% drop from 2022. That contrasts with how the same HR officials view their fellow professionals, saying 92% still were empathetic despite the tough economy.
“Once leaders get promoted, they enter an environment that tends to erode their emotional intelligence. They spend less time in meaningful interactions with their staff and lose sight of how their emotional states impact those around them. It's so easy to get out of touch that leaders' EQ levels sink further.
There's a large gap between how CEOs perceive reality versus how employees do. While 67% of CEOs see themselves as more empathetic than they were before the pandemic, only 59% of employees would agree—a 10% drop from last year. CEOs are also less likely to take responsibility for creating an empathic workplace.
Some people, known as dark empaths, understand the feelings of others but don't feel these feelings themselves. They might act like they care, but deep down, they don't feel sympathy for you or have a desire to help. They use their understanding of your feelings to manipulate you.
Lacking the ability to feel, understand and resonate with another's feelings is categorised as empathy deficit disorder (EDD). This results in difficulty forming and maintaining relationships for both the individual who lacks empathy and potential friends and loved ones.
A lack of empathy is often considered to be one of the distinctive features of narcissism. However, this is not entirely the case.
People with a low level of empathy is unable to understand your feelings in a situation that you experience, they can only think how they may react in that situation, but this excludes your reality and your perspective on life. Empathy gives you the ability to understand all people, not just those you feel sorry for.
People with low emotional intelligence struggle to control, understand, and express emotions. They would react negatively because they are upset and they cannot understand what they are feeling. They have constant and uncontrollable emotional outbursts.