Maybe this Charles Dickens guy actually knew something about the human condition? Rich people can’t read the emotions of others, but the poor are experts in empathy.

In mock job interviews, researchers (led by Michael Kraus of the University of California, San Francisco) asked more than 300 upper- and lower-class people to read the emotions of people in photos and of live strangers. Those with a higher education-level, more money, and a self-defined social position, struggled to figure out whether or not someone was angry or happy, compared to those in the lower class.

Kraus said:

We found that people from a lower-class background—in terms of occupation, status, education and income level—performed better in terms of emotional intelligence, the ability to read the emotions that others are feeling.

Lower-class people are so much better at reading people’s emotions because they’re much more likely to ask others for help:

You turn to people, it’s an adaptive strategy. You develop this sort of heightened independence with other individuals as a way to deal with not having enough individual resources.

On the other hand, as Kraus said, wealthy people don’t:

One of the negative side effects of that is that they’re less concerned and less perceptive of other people’s needs and wishes. They show a deficit in empathic accuracy.

So, since you can, try to feel some empathy towards your boss. He can’t tell that you hate him. It’s not so easy being really, really, ridiculously wealthy.

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