The effect of perceived wealth and poverty on adolescents' character judgments

American adolescents between the ages of 11 and 16 were shown a photograph and a brief biographical sketch of a stranger in their own age group. The stranger was described as poor, wealthy, or neutral (no economic cues provided). Subjects were asked to rate the stranger on 20 characterological traits arranged in a semantic differential format. Strangers depicted as poor received significantly lower overall ratings than did neutral or wealthy strangers. Wealthy strangers were perceived to be more intelligent, to make better grades, to make friends more easily, and to embody other positive traits to a greater degree than neutral or poor strangers. Contrary to findings in other studies, however, poor individuals were not perceived to be lazy or to mishandle money. No interactions were found between affluence-based character judgments and the sex or age of subjects.