Psychology studies suggest rising wealth means more jerks in S.F.

Pedestrians walk past Tiffany & Co. Jan. 21, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. Pedestrians walk past Tiffany & Co. Jan. 21, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Psychology studies suggest rising wealth means more jerks in S.F. 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

If it seems that San Franciscans are getting more entitled and self-absorbed, a series of psychology studies performed at UC Berkeley indicates there could be a scientific reason: the city’s increasing wealth.

Paul Piff, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at UC Irvine (he moved from UC Berkeley just a few weeks ago), has spent the past decade conducting about 50 studies on how wealthy people and poorer people behave in the same situations.

Again and again, he’s found a common thread: Rich people are more likely to behave unethically even if they get very little benefit.

They’re more likely to take candy from a jar labeled as just for kids, cheat at games and cut off pedestrians in crosswalks. They’re also more likely to say they’d do the same thing when told about somebody who accepts bribes, lies to customers, cheats on an exam or pockets the money when a clerk gives too much change.

“I think what we’re assessing in these studies is a general lack of sensitivity to the needs of other people,” Piff said. “The wealthier you are, the less attuned you are to other people around you.”

Piff speculated that wealthier people don’t have the same sensitivity to others as poor people do because they don’t need to rely on their neighbors and the wider community as much.

Of course, a psychology laboratory is far different from San Francisco itself. But in terms of wealth, our city is extremely fertile ground for study. There are now an estimated 5,460 “superrich” San Franciscans who are worth $30 million or more — up from 4,230 just three years ago.

Home prices soaring

The median home price in San Francisco in the fourth quarter of 2014 was $1.13 million, according to Paragon Real Estate. That’s compared with $208,000 nationwide. Paragon also estimates that there are 38,000 households in the city earning more than $200,000 annually.

All this wealth has proved great for the city’s tax coffers, but it’s also resulted in some complaints — namely that people are ruder, more interested in their smartphones than talking to real people, less interested in charity or politics, and more selfish when behind the wheel.

To find out what some wealthy people thought about Piff’s studies, the local BMW showroom — where else? — on Howard Street seemed like the perfect place. One of Piff’s most interesting studies found that just half the drivers of luxury cars stopped for a pedestrian about to enter a crosswalk, whereas just about all drivers of old beaters stopped.

(The study was conducted at an intersection near the UC Berkeley campus in 2012. It placed a pedestrian on a street corner, ensured the pedestrian made eye contact with the driver and then tracked the estimated value and model of hundreds of cars and what their drivers did.)

“BMW drivers were the worst,” Piff said. “They were most likely to break the law.”

Mercedes-Benz drivers and Prius drivers were also pretty bad about acknowledging pedestrians’ right-of-way, Piff said. He speculated that Prius drivers are so concerned with their gas mileage that they’re sensitive to stopping.

In any case, the guys — they were all guys — waiting to have their BMWs cleaned or serviced were all very gracious and chatty, and not a single one stole candy from a child or tried to cheat on a test.

Michael Goff, the founder of a tech startup in Mountain View, speculated that “type A, aggressive” personalities succeed in business and can afford luxury cars. And then they may drive that way on the roads.

“It’s not the cars that are that way, it’s the personalities,” he said, adding that he’s the exception. “I’m pretty careful.”

Sebastiano Tevarotto, the 52-year-old CEO of a software company and a Noe Valley resident, said he wasn’t surprised by Piff’s findings. The native of Italy has lived in San Francisco for 15 years and said he has noticed the city move away from its hippie, free-love roots and toward being a crowded, aggressive, New York-like place.

“The entitlement, the wealth — it’s a different crowd,” he said. “It was more relaxed, and now it’s definitely more intense and competitive.”

“There is a certain amount of arrogance that comes with wealth and does translate to people feeling entitled at times and act not as nicely,” he continued before quipping, “Of course, I’m different.”

More of a 'me’ mentality

Supervisor David Campos, who represents the Mission, has talked a lot about San Francisco’s growing income inequality and what he views as a “Tale of Two Cities.”

He said some wealthy San Franciscans are incredibly generous, such as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, but said he thinks it’s the exception in today’s corporate culture. He is pushing Airbnb, for example, to pay millions in back taxes but hasn’t gotten anywhere.

“There is less concern for what’s happening in the city than you would expect,” he said. “It’s more of a 'me’ mentality at times.”

He said Piff’s studies sound right to him and that when poor people come to City Hall talking about evictions or homelessness, they usually talk in the context of the whole community rather than their individual predicaments.

“It’s not just people wanting to protect themselves; it’s people wanting to protect their neighbors,” Campos said.

Reid Condit, a 74-year-old resident of high-rise public housing in the Tenderloin — not a guy who’ll be shopping for a BMW anytime soon — said it’s been frustrating getting help fixing the building’s often broken elevators, especially in such a rich city. He’s lived in San Francisco off and on since the late 1960s and said the class divisions are quickly growing stark.

“There are whole echelons in this society that people in different circumstances are completely unaware of and have little exposure to,” he said. “People are just not aware of the economic challenges that others have to put up with.”

Back on Howard Street in SoMa, several men worked on Mercedes, BMWs and other German cars at Metric Motors. Tom Cebollero, 48, drives a BMW and bought the independent auto shop eight years ago after getting sick of his job in corporate finance.

'Confidence builders’

He was intrigued by Piff’s study and said it makes sense because BMWs are “confidence builders.”

“People who own these cars zip around,” he said. “You get into a Honda or a truck, you feel clunky — like I’ve got to go slow.”

He added, though, that after getting clipped by a Prius as a pedestrian and colliding with a bicyclist who blew through a red light when he was in his car, he’s “super-duper careful.”

“A lot of people are super aggro,” he said.

Rob Soares, 44, works at the auto shop and started driving a BMW about a year ago. He knows the car’s reputation — and said it’s only partly deserved.

“When I got my BMW, my mom said, 'You’re not going to turn into one of those douche bags are you?’” he said, laughing. “I thought that was pretty funny coming from my mom.”

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf