Recently, Robert Dur, Professor of Economics of Incentives at Erasmus School of Economics, appeared in an interview with Brainwash about the impact of having good or bad luck on your paycheck. It is not always the case that a high salary is the result of hard work, Dur argues. There are many more factors that affect your income.
People with lower incomes are more likely to think that this low income is due to unfortunate circumstances beyond their control. Conversely, you also often see that people with high incomes are more likely to think that this is entirely due to their hard work. 'We call this the self-serving bias,' the professor explains. 'We tend to attribute positive events to ourselves, and negative events to circumstances beyond our control.'
People with high incomes who think that is entirely due to hard work are usually wrong. In fact, your parents' income often weighs even more in determining your income than how hard you work. After all, rich parents can offer their children more opportunities for development, have a better network and often possess more knowledge than low-income parents.
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You can read the full article from Brainwash, 2 January 2024, here.