According to clinical psychologist Dr. Tian Dayton, children of wealth often begin life with prescribed identities and a sense of social and financial superiority.
The absence of struggle and adversity can hinder their development of resilience and empathy, leading to a distorted worldview where entitlement replaces gratitude.
Interested in real-life examples of this, Reddit user ThrowRAmagicia posted a question on the platform, asking people to describe the worst cases of “rich kid syndrome” they had ever seen. Here are some of the most memorable replies.
no-particular-90210 , SoulRider.222/flickr Report
BlindOnARocketcycle , Paul Sullivan/flickr Report
According to the psychologist, “wealthy people can sometimes afford to isolate themselves in a world of privilege that doesn’t develop these traits.” She also added that wealth can set high standards of what we think of as achievement, making a child born into it feel that nothing they do will ever measure up to their family’s.
“This can be debilitating,” Dayton said. “If the family values equate money with achievement, they may feel that acquiring wealth is one of the only ways to feel successful.”
MiraJane96 , energepic.com/pexels Report
lil_poundcake , ALINA MATVEYCHEVA/pexels Report
“I live in a college town where there is a pretty significant population of rich, entitled families and also students,” they started, introducing the origins of the post. “So I am aware of some students whose families pay $2,000/mo for their rent during college and I was curious to learn more about these types of people/families.”
The Redditor said the common theme amongst the replies was “just a completely skewed and sheltered worldview that rich kids have.”
Desalvo23 , Tom Fisk/pexels Report
listenspace , Pixabay/pexels Report
“There is no more serious form of this than in marriage,” the psychologist highlighted. “A wealthy young person may have someone who wants to marry them to attach themselves to wealth rather than basing the marriage on true love. This is an injustice to the wealthy person and a danger wealthy young people may face.”
“Another function of status is that it can get comfortable, and it is bestowed on the wealthy person simply because they share a family status. The status can have the effect both of making them feel overly secure because of the way they are seen or insecure because while they do have status, they have no sense of having earned it,” Dayton said.
Seruvius , Mikhail Nilov/pexels Report
SuspiciousBowlOfSoup , Andrea Piacquadio/pexels Report
killerkebab1499 , cottonbro studio/pexels Report
ThrowRAmagicia shares this sentiment and thinks that because of it, the rich and the average folk can never truly understand one another, either. “Rich people are either born into their lifestyle or they had a ton of luck. They will never comprehend what it’s like to never be able to get what you desire,” they said. “Getting everything they want is just a given.”
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Coyote3855 , Megapixelstock/pexels Report
megsomatosis , Max Fischer/pexels Report
“If these values are placed before others, understanding follows,” she said.
Sea_Ganache620 , Mikhail Nilov/pexels Report
johnnyglass , MART PRODUCTION/pexels Report
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LordNorros , aaronmjr/flickr Report
Deitaphobia , Mikhail Nilov/pexels Report
Itward_ , Christina Morillo/pexels Report
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Beloved_Fir_44 , Iker Larrañaga/flickr Report
KermitTheFraud92 , Antoni Shkraba/pexels Report
audreytheredhead , Дарья Шелкович/pexels Report
PokketMowse , steviep187/flickr Report
to be fair, if the parents said “we will only buy you a new if something happened to the old one” that’s kind of on the parents.
bigdreams_littledick , Yan Krukau/pexels Report
limbodog , Andrea Piacquadi/pexels Report
AmandaExpress , WTForever21/flickr Report
Danobing , Javon Swaby/pexels Report
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Lindsey_NC , Tim Douglas/pexels Report
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