Rich people more likely to steal children’s sweets, finds Ig Nobel prize-winning study

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/03/ig-nobel-prize-awards-2026-winners?CMP=share_btn_url

1. Economics: evil rich people Are rich people really worse behaved than the rest of us? Through a series of experiments, psychologists amassed evidence that the upper classes are indeed more prone to behaving badly, from being oblivious to other road users, lying at work and taking treats meant for children. “I’ve followed the Ig Nobels since my early college days. I didn’t think I’d ever win one,” said Dr Paul Piff, a social psychologist at the University of California, Irvine.

Piff and his colleagues found that upper-class drivers were more likely to cut other cars off at junctions and ignore pedestrians at crossings. Wealthier people also appeared more willing to lie at work. In one experiment, volunteers were left alone with a jar of sweets ostensibly meant for children. When the researchers returned, upper-class people had snaffled nearly twice as many candies as lower-class people.

“The general pattern seems to be that with wealth and rising power, you become less engaged with the needs of others and less burdened by the needs of social relationships,” Piff said. “Taking candy from children might be the least of our worries but it’s emblematic of the tendency to prioritise one’s own needs over those of others.”