Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money, new study finds

People who are selfish tend to have fewer children and lower salaries than those who are not, a new study reveals.

Researchers from the University of Stockholm are suggesting the concept that selfish people accrue more money thanks to their thrifty ways is nonsense after it found that people who engage in selfless behaviour are in fact more likely to receive a higher income and have larger families. 

Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study “Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money“ focuses on selfishness from an economical and evolutionary perspective. 

The results were based on analyses of four major studies of 60,000 Americans and Europeans, which measured selfishness through attitudes and reported behaviour. 

In collaboration with the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, researchers at Stockholm University looked at how selfishness relates specifically to income and fertility. 

It found that unselfish people tended to have higher fertility rates and higher incomes than selfish people, although the largest incomes were found among those classed as moderately unselfish.

”The result is clear in both the American and the European data. The most unselfish people have the most children and the moderately unselfish receive the highest salaries,” explains Kimmo Eriksson, study author and researcher at the Centre for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University.