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Past research has already shown that reminders of money and materialism encourage us to be more selfish and less helpful, presumably because of the connotations of competition and self-sufficiency.
For the study, students working for the researchers pretended that they needed help in a range of shopping locations across Paris, as well as nearby residential streets. They would then pretend to be in need of help, for example the students walked with a crutch and leg brace, waited for an unsuspecting passer-by and then dropped their things. The test was whether the passerby would help.
The consistent finding across the studies was that people were far less likely to help if they'd just been shopping in a luxury store or even if they just happened to be walking along a street with an abundance of luxury stores. For example, 77.5 per cent of passersby were helpful on an ordinary street compared with 35 per cent of those who had just exited a luxury store.
The researchers said, "materialistic reminders may have increased self-enhancement and competitive values, which in turn would decrease trusting and benevolent behaviour, and a sense of being concerned about and connected to other people."
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Source material from Research Digest