Money won't make you nicer

Research shows that having a lot of money is not necessarily a benefit, at least when it comes to embodying characteristics that lead to inner peace like empathy, honesty and compassion. In fact it's quite the opposite: Money can make you mean, according to this week's cover story in New York magazine.

New York's story follows on a run of coverage looking at the differences between the way rich and poor people think. Last fall, a key study on wealth and empathy at the University of California-Berkeley showed that while the rich have less compassion for others, it isn't because they have faulty hard-wiring. It's because they lack an education from the School of Hard Knocks.

Of course, not all rich people are jerks. And some critics of this emerging field say that the studies are motivated by left-leaning ideologies. In fact, some the richest people in the country--such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates--have been the biggest benefactors to charities and foundations that accomplish key humanitarian works.