Quote:
Originally Posted by Esel Mann
Let's not get our panties in a wad about this study. It's nothing more than feed for the water-cooler chatter.
Problem 1 - Attempt to classify a person by the car they drive. Issues or holes:
- Many of the "high-end" cars are leased. While leasing can be a valuable tool, let's face it, car leasing came about to permit the car company's to get people into a car they could not normally afford.
- Many of the "high-end" cars were bought used, hence at a price far lower than current model year new. Why because most people cannot afford the new one. Many also tend to keep them all nice and shiny on the outside and unless you are a car afficionado, that high-end used car gets lumped in with the high-end new cars from a perception standpoint.
Problem 2 - Asking a person to classify where they fit. Issues or holes:
- I have found that most people, when queried on a matter such as this and whereby it is unlikely that the interviewer/questioner cannot possibly be expected to verify, most people will exaggerate their importance or status or wealth. While it was many, many moons ago, I also seem to recall in political science 101 and psychology 101, a true study performed which validated this tendency to exaggerate when there is an unlikelihood of being cross-checked.
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Both problems you describe might have been significant, but other situational experiments in the study tended to reinforce their thesis.
If a person perceives themselves in a higher social class, their attitudes may mirror those with persons having verifiable wealth. The other test situations placed random test subjects in role-playing scenarios (candy experiment) with similar results. This study doesn't necessarily disparage all who are wealthy; it just shows potential sociological tendencies, just like persons who have healthy appetites aren't necessarily obese. Unbunch shorts and move on.
Sherwood