The relationship between social class and unethical and prosocial (traffic) behavior: two naturalistic replication studies.

Whereas some previous studies have shown that upper-class individuals are more unethical and less prosocial than lower-class individuals, other studies reported contradictory results. The present research provides two replication attempts by examining whether upper-class drivers would be more likely to cut off a pedestrian at a marked crosswalk (Study 1) and less likely to let a pedestrian cross an unmarked pedestrian crossing (Study 2) than lower-class drivers. In both studies, the vehicle status as an index of the social class of the driver was not significantly related to whether the driver let the pedestrian cross the street. Overall, it appears that the associations between social class and unethical behavior and prosocial behavior are less robust and generalizable than initially thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]