Profs & Pints Alameda: How Money Shapes Minds

Profs and Pints Alameda presents: “How Money Shapes Minds,” a research-based examination of how money alters our thought processes and behavior, with Daniel E. Martin, associate professor of management at CSU East Bay and director of Corporate Compassion Education at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion, Altruism Research and Education.

Acquiring more money doesn’t just change what we can buy. It quietly changes how we think, how we relate to others, and how we relate to and use power. Psychology, epidemiology, history, and ancient wisdom all converge on this conclusion: the more power and money we have, the less compassion we feel for others—unless, that is, such compassion is intentionally cultivated.

Gain insights into how money influences our behavior—and how we can keep growing wealth from shrinking our heart—with Daniel Martin, who directs Corporate Compassion Education at a Stanford University center focused on understanding the neural, mental, and social bases of compassion and altruism.

He’ll discuss why wealth so often reduces compassion rather than increasing it, and how the use of power changes as wealth grows. We’ll look at how inequality changes moral judgment and political tolerance for suffering, and whether compassion can be trained in leaders and institutions in ways that measurably change behavior.

Drawing from experimental research in social psychology and other fields, we’ll explore how merely thinking about money increases self-focus, reduces helping, and weakens empathy—effects that don’t stop at individuals but scale up into teams, organizations, and entire societies.

We’ll look at evidence showing that higher social class predicts lower empathic accuracy, greater entitlement, and more tolerance for unethical behavior, while inequality itself erodes trust, generosity, and concern for suffering at all levels. These patterns help explain why large systems so often become indifferent to harm, even when the people being hurt by them believe they are acting rationally or fairly.

We’ll look at what great thinkers such as Plato, Rumi, Aristotle, the Buddha, the Vedas, Zoroaster, and Lao Tzu have to say on the matter. You’ll emerge with a better understanding of how money affects your behavior and the behavior of those around you. (Tickets available only online. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A limousine parked by a homeless person in San Francisco’s Mission District. (Photo by Shani Heckman / Wikimedia Common.)

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