If you think money doesn’t play a role in people’s attitudes toward the less fortunate, you may want to think again.
A new study conducted by social scientists at Paris Descartes University and University of Southern Brittany found that shoppers outside of luxury stores like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Christian Louboutin and Versace were less likely to help people in need of assistance than customers outside of budget-friendly stores, reports Forbes.
Study Results: Being Helpful Is Apparently Out Of Fashion
The experiment consisted of observing shoppers outside of both high-end boutiques and common shops in Paris, and the results showed that only 35 percent of the haute couture customers were willing to perform an act of kindness while standing near lavish goods, while 77.5 percent of shoppers outside of budget-friendly stores were willing to give a helping hand.
Examples of the exercises volunteers performed include asking a stranger to temporarily watch a wheel chair-bound friend, asking to borrow a cell phone, and a “mademoiselle in distress” dropping packages and appearing to be in need of assistance.
“Near a luxury store, participants were less likely to offer help,” researchers concluded, theorizing that materialism makes people less empathetic and less generous to their fellow human kind.