UC Berkeley researchers were awarded the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize \u2014 a parody Nobel Prize \u2014 for research showing that \u201cupper-class\u201d individuals practice more unethical behaviors than \u201clower-class\u201d individuals, including taking candy meant for children or cutting off pedestrians in traffic.<\/p>\n
UC Berkeley professors Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton and Dacher Keltner are among a group of five awardees that conducted the research, alongside UC Irvine associate professor Paul K. Piff, Snowflake AI researcher Daniel Stancato and University of Toronto professor St\u00e9phane C\u00f4t\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The Ig Nobel Prize is a satirical award that plays off the word ignoble \u2014 meaning dishonorable or lower in status. It honors achievements that \u201cmake people laugh, then think,\u201d according to the Improbable Research website. As the company behind the prize, Improbable Research has awarded it annually since 1991 in multiple fields, including economics.<\/p>\n
In their 2012 paper, the researchers found that, across seven studies, upper-class individuals behaved \u201cmore unethically than lower-class individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the group\u2019s studies found that upper-class participants were more likely to take candy out of a stash meant to be for children than lower-class participants.<\/p>\n
They also found that upper-class drivers were more likely to make illegal driving maneuvers. At a four-way stop sign intersection, drivers with higher-end vehicles were more likely to cut off other vehicles instead of waiting their turn; when observers positioned themselves at a pedestrian crosswalk, upper-class drivers were least likely to yield to the pedestrians.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who were driving fancier cars were more likely to cut off pedestrians and cut off other drivers,\u201d Mendoza-Denton said. \u201cThe (study) that really caught the attention of the Ig Nobel Prize was that (upper-class) people took more (of the) candy that was meant for children than (lower-class people).\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, another study had participants read ethical scenarios and report the likelihood of engaging in similar behavior. The study found the upper-class individuals were more likely to act unethically.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons for this disparity in behavior, the report suggests, is that people from upper-class backgrounds may be inclined to act unethically because \u201cgreater resources, freedom, and independence\u201d give rise to \u201cself-focused socialcognitive tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thinking about shifting criminal justice so that it isn\u2019t biased against the poor. All of this, in some sense, begins with the blindness that we have as society to the unethical troubles that the privileged people get us into,\u201d Keltner said. \u201cWe need safeguards against the privileged and the powerful because they lead us astray time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keltner said he loves the \u201cspirit of the award.\u201d He said that while the findings \u201cmay not be the revolutionary theory that gets a Nobel Prize,\u201d they make people think more closely about \u201cregulating the abuses of class and privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley researchers were awarded the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize \u2014 a parody Nobel Prize \u2014 for research…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[182974,182976,182972,182978,150,143,145,144,182975,182973,182977,149,23212],"class_list":["post-464611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-dacher-keltner","tag-daniel-stancato","tag-ig-nobel-prize","tag-improbable-research","tag-nobel-prize","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-paul-k-piff","tag-rodolfo-mendoza-denton","tag-stphane-ct","tag-uc-berkeley","tag-university-of-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}