A saying in psychology goes that more truth comes out when people are drunk. This is even when it comes to politics, where studies showed that young people who espouse more liberal beliefs get more conservative when they are inebriated. They stop saying what they think they should be saying based on what people want to hear.

Along that line, a wealthy person who was raised poor is more likely to see through excuses of poor people than someone born into money, according to a new paper. They are less 'sympathetic' than people who have never had to struggle. 

In their first two studies, Koo, Piff, and Shariff surveyed 736 people in the U.S. and found that people viewed those who became rich (the Became Rich) more positively than those who were born rich (the Born Rich), and expected the Became Rich to be also be more supportive of the poor and social welfare programs. So they surveyed 1,032 relatively wealthy individuals in the U.S. (with annual incomes over $80,000 in one study and over $142,501 in another) and found that those who became rich thought it was easier to improve one’s socioeconomic status than people who were born rich, and this, in turn, predicted reduced sympathetic attitudes toward the poor.

Rich people know they were born rich. They got lucky. This may be why foundations created by wealthy people get more progressive over time. The founders did the work, and know how to go from nothing to something, but their children may see their parents as part of the problem in capitalism.

Their final effort was simulating the experience of upward mobility using a thought experiment in order to see if imagining upward mobility would affect participants’ view of those who had not advanced. Participants in the upwardly mobile group were more likely to believe success is possible for everyone who wants to do the work, which led to reduced sympathy toward poor people. 

There are numerous confounders. Psychology is rife with papers showing the initial hypothesis is true because they are based overwhelmingly on surveys and the bias they bring, so there are numerous examples of wealthy people born poor - the CEO of Starbucks - that retain a great deal of sympathy. At least in public statements. What they may say after a few tequilas is something else.