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> You, like a real rich person, start to attribute success to your own individual skills and talents, and you become less attuned to all of the other things tha

> You, like a real rich person, start to attribute success to your own individual skills and talents, and you become less attuned to all of the other things that contributed to you being in the position that you're in. Now let's do a simple switcheroo on this one: "You, like a real poor person, start to attribute failure to external causes, and you become overly attuned to all of the other things that may or may not have contributed to you being in the position that you're in." So which one is the norm? Is the norm poor people attributing failure to external causes (as well as other people) or is rich people attributing success to themselves the norm? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle perhaps?

meric 13y ago
Or, perhaps, it's much easier to come a conclusion there's nothing one can do to improve one's position, if one attributes successes and failures to external causes rather than attributing successes and failures to themselves; Since it's generally perceived that it's possible to change oneself but much more difficult to change others and the surrounding environment. Therefore, if you assume poor people do attribute the causes of their situation to their surrounding environment, and that rich people attribute causes of their situation to themselves, it can be hypothesised rich people got to be rich because of their perception that they can change themselves to achieve their financial wealth, whereas poor people gave up because of the perceived difficulty changing their surrounding environment.
manicdee 13y ago
What evidence do you have to support your thesis of poor people attributing their situation mainly to external factors? And why can't both be true? Is it possible that humans innately attribute success to themselves and failure to their environment?
- bluekeybox 13y ago
  > And why can't both be true? I did express that possibility (I said, "or is the truth somewhere in the middle perhaps?"). In fact I have reasons to believe that that is the case.

meric 13y ago

Or, perhaps, it's much easier to come a conclusion there's nothing one can do to improve one's position, if one attributes successes and failures to external causes rather than attributing successes and failures to themselves; Since it's generally perceived that it's possible to change oneself but much more difficult to change others and the surrounding environment. Therefore, if you assume poor people do attribute the causes of their situation to their surrounding environment, and that rich people attribute causes of their situation to themselves, it can be hypothesised rich people got to be rich because of their perception that they can change themselves to achieve their financial wealth, whereas poor people gave up because of the perceived difficulty changing their surrounding environment.

manicdee 13y ago

What evidence do you have to support your thesis of poor people attributing their situation mainly to external factors? And why can't both be true? Is it possible that humans innately attribute success to themselves and failure to their environment?

bluekeybox 13y ago
> And why can't both be true? I did express that possibility (I said, "or is the truth somewhere in the middle perhaps?"). In fact I have reasons to believe that that is the case.