I have always been a strong believer in the saying "Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them". Studying this area would be difficult though as you either need to know ahead of time who would be successful, or study such a large cross-section that you are statistically likely to snare future successful people in your population.

Well, with modern technology, it's harder for a newly wealthy person to conceal their past. The days of whitewashing personal history are fading.

There is a fundamental moral conflict in desiring to own more than the next person. That requires less guilt or empathy, no doubt about that.

You can find elsewhere an study about how psycopaths are usually found in leading positions, like politicians (specially in 3rd world, where salaries are high) and CEOs, amongst others.

You're grossly simplifying things. A person may be driven to succeed and generate wealth for their family because they want to be able to send their children to the best schools possible, or they want to be able to access the best medical practitioners and technology if someone they cared about were to get sick. It may have absolutely nothing to do with owning "more than the next person."

but what you've said implies that the desire to own more than the next person does exist!

If there was a limited amount of a certain resource, i would certainly have to own more than the next person in order to acquire that resource.

I'm amazed you didn't see how much you contradicted yourself.

I was waiting to find a comment like this! I tend to agree. I suspect being born with less empathy and concern allows you to acquire more wealth and my real life experiences have supported it. At least in the US (India seems to have deeper structural challenges) Be interesting to dig deeper.

I can see it working in both directions, and I'm sure it does.