The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
Stress hormones tell your kidneys to stop taking water out of the bloodstream to make urine, while throughout the body water is diverted from tissues to the bloodstream,
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
about 70 percent of a company’s performance, for which the CEO normally gets credit and blame, is a matter of pure random chance.
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
conscientiousness and organization that seemed to come naturally to my middle-class classmates.
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
Subjects did not choose complete equality: They still believed the top fifth should have a far greater proportion of the total wealth than the bottom fifth.
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
People quickly adapt to their higher economic status, as each rise in income becomes the set point for the new normal. As a result, average happiness is entirely unrelated to economic growth over time. This surprising finding has become known as the Easterlin paradox.
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
These ideal allotments did not look much like those of the United States, the most unequal developed nation in the world. Instead, they resembled those of Sweden, one of the most equal nations on earth.
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
Social comparisons led to differences in political beliefs.
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
Even when their accomplishment had been randomly determined by the experimenters, successful subjects assumed it was their own hard work and talent that entitled them to their rewards.
Keith Payne • The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think, Live and Die
When you feel that you have nothing, even the cells in your body start demanding to take what they need now and worry about the future later. Inequality accelerates this process by making everyone feel less secure.